I usually go to Allen Fieldhouse on the University of Kansas campus to watch my Jayhawks play basketball. But in May of 2004, I walked into that historic building with my wife and youngest son and about 12,000 other people to witness a rare occurrence: two great political leaders having a great discussion about the issues of our day without demonizing one another. The two leaders were Bob Dole and Bill Clinton. It was a hot day. None of us packed in their minded the heat. All of us relished the moment.
Their message that day was simple. Democracy is a work in progress. It requires debate and compromise. It does not do well if we talk at each other but not with each other. And that is the problem today.
What has happened to us? It is difficult to sit down with someone of differing political views and have a conversation about your differences. We get uncomfortable and quickly try to change the subject. And when reasonable people are not willing to have those kinds of discussion, a vacuum is created. The vacuum is then filled by those with extreme viewpoints that are intolerant of any one elses's views but their own. Rational debate and the hope for compromise is gone.
One of our creatives here at our company, in concert with some other people he worked with in a previous life stepped into the vacuum. Their creation is called The Red/Blue Project and it is designed to do one thing: make us all think about our intolerance of other viewpoints. The fact is we all have degrees of intolerance. This will make you think about your own.
Visit the site, look at the television spots, jump on the Red/Blue blog or let's talk about it here. Or go find someone you know you disagree with on some issue and ask them to sit down and talk about your differences. It all starts with one conversation.
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