Take a Cue

Well, it’s Saturday morning. About the only things I have planned today are to cut the grass, get a haircut, and work out at the Y. This evening, we will go to our nephew’s new home over by Cheney Lake and enjoy a time with the wife’s family.
Some of my readers weren’t happy with the politics of Ted Kennedy. Others may well embrace at least some of what he championed. Some of my readers may even be happy he’s no longer in the Senate, although I can’t imagine any who would wish him death by brain cancer.
Regardless of Mr. Kennedy’s politics, regardless of his personal failures, and regardless of the tragedies that struck his family, this nation has suffered loss. I don’t think it’s loss as great as some on the television would have us believe, and we will indeed go on without him. No one is indispensible.
Mr. Kennedy was one of the last of the old line politicians who talked a hard line, was eloquent in speech, and yet reached out for consensus when necessary from those he politically opposed. He could revile the political positions of his opponents with words that dug deep into the issue, yet a few minutes later would be cracking jokes and schmoozing with the same politicos he earlier was skewering. By the way, Robert Dole was also one of this club. It cuts across party lines.
We could learn from that kind of behavior. We tend to let things become very personal very quickly when someone disagrees with us. We tend to see the bad in them and want to conjure up all sorts of personal vendettas. How dare they oppose us!
What we fail to see is that it isn’t (or shouldn’t be) personal at all. Not agreeing with someone’s position on an issue, whether political, religious, or personal, does not (or should not) equate with not liking someone. To be able to have a civil discussion of whatever the issue is while maintaining a positive personal relationship is all the harder in this age of Limbaugh-esque antics and behavior. We would do well to turn off Fox News (or MSNBC) and take our civility cues from our parents and grandparents who, I hope, taught us much, much better than anything we see on the tube.