The Dirty Word

My post yesterday got me thinking about all the great students I've had the privilege of teaching. I recall one student, an older gentleman who taught mechanics, who said once that he had a professor who was a liberal and refused to acknowledge the merit of anyone who didn't agree with his politics. My response--he wasn't very liberal then. I am as liberal as they come, which I know is like a dirty word to some. And though it would make for less complicated politics, I absolutely do not deject those with opposing views (unless we're talking about the Westboro Baptists). I am a liberal in the defining sense, which means "open-minded or tolerant, especially free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc." There are benefits and flaws in every political stance and it just so happens that I identify most with what I see as the benefits of the Democratic party. It seems so much time is wasted by people trying to talk over one another, refusing to see anything but their own mind, trying to convince the other side of their own rightness. Of course everyone wants to be right, but lets at least acknowledge that what is right for you isn't always right for others. Isn't that what we teach kids--that diversity is a good thing? Yet when it comes to our political views we seem to deny the merit of diversity. Maybe instead of waving our rightness above our heads until we are blue in the face we should perfect the art of listening.