All elementary school teachers have helped their students through the process of learning how to play with their fellow students on the playground.  It’s not uncommon for arguments to break out, and from time to time and they can become physical.  These disagreements have many common causes.  There is name calling, not knowing how to share, who got there first, unintentional shoving and bumping, ownership disputes, “me” is more important than you or the rest of you, and more.   To a teacher, all of this is opportunity.

This is where children learn to be good neighbors and not playground bullies.  There are many ways to work through a disagreement with two students including cooling off and calming down, trading spots to encourage empathy-“how do you think they feel?”, talking and negotiation.  The lessons are fundamental to good citizenship.  Lessons like selflessness instead of selfishness, being helpful and not hurtful, talk and negotiation instead of force, and empathy.  With practice, lessons are learned.

However, after learning all of this on the playground in elementary school why do we forget the lessons as adults?  Specifically, in politics why can adults who are well educated and aspiring leaders act like common playground bullies on TV and the rest of the media?  This is an age old question and this will only change through the disciplining process of losing an audience and losing votes.  The ultimate lesson is in losing an election.  What can ordinary citizens do with the right to vote?  How can we become the “elementary school teacher?”

As voters, what are the specific steps we can take to start this process?  It is simple but requires patient application over a long period.  Simply put, we should listen to candidates who talk about themselves and what they propose, and then ignore those candidates who talk about the other candidate and rarely talk about themselves.  Candidates should focus on telling their own story to the voters not distorting the story of the other person.  What a candidate says about their plan and themselves is important to us as voters.  What they say about the other candidate, isn’t.  As voters, we can decide.  We need to follow Voting Alert Beacon #3.

In my next post, I will discuss how the media can support a more positive process and Beacon #3, along with how Beacon #3 can be applied to them.

. . .  remember that America’s best days aren’t behind her.   America’s best days are ahead of her.  They always have been and always will be.

Dave

 Copyright © 2012 by David William Wygant. All rights reserved.