thoughts on the news of the day: give and take

hmmm…..

            President Obama spoke to us on national television last night.  He was referencing the struggles to come to an agreement with Congress on balancing the budget when he said that in Washington “compromise has become a dirty word.”

            I suppose that could be said about lots of issues today.  We have so many opportunities to voice our opinion that we begin to hear our own rhetoric as gospel truth.  It then becomes impossible to compromise.  But compromise is really a way of life that we need to learn if we want to survive with any happiness at all. 

            Compromise is give and take; it is finding the middle ground.  We do it everyday when we drive to a stop sign and stop at the same time as another vehicle.  One of us gets to go first; the other will have to wait.  Compromise is what we do when our spouse wants to go to the ball game and we want to go to the movies.  We negotiate and meet each other half way; we go to both or we go to one today and the other next weekend. 

            Compromise goes haywire when one person always wins.  There is resentment that builds up and eventually there is no bargaining at all.  The conceder begins to distrust and after a time, there is no cooperation to be found. 

            I think compromise needs to be brought back into our vocabulary and to the vocabulary of our government.  It is the only way to reach an equitable agreement and the only way to find peace.

            hmmm…..