I want to thank Mitch for his blog this past Saturday.  His words helped me to decide to publish the foregoing.

Since the presidential election, there has been a political détente going on in my home. Half of the members of my household are fiscal conservatives, although socially liberal and the other half of my household are both fiscally and socially liberal. Conversations immediately after the election were both emotional and heated. Therefore, since the November election, we have agreed not to discuss politics.

Given that the most of the news has been flooded with political stories since the election, I have found our so-called ban to be very limiting. There have been numerous days I found myself wanting to discuss the day’s events with my family but holding myself back. Lately, however, it appears that we have been gently pulling away from our restrictions. We are slowly inching towards having enlightening discussions that appear to both hear and consider the other side’s point of view.

When we originally “banned” political discussion in our home the rationale was that it had become too emotional a topic. But as we gently increase our discussions, I find that we each have respect for the other side’s point of view. I have also been very surprised to come to understand that we all seem to want similar outcomes. Perhaps we just disagree as to how to get there.

I am glad that the ban is slowly lifting in our home. With discussion comes more understanding. Are you listening at all to the other side?