Another year goes by

As the years pass by seemingly quicker and quicker I realize I have fewer of them left. One wonders with the limited time left what to do. How do you prioritize? Some many things to accomplish and so little time. I came across a quote recently that has stayed with me. Ben Franklin: "The best thing to give your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example... to all men, charity." I have stated in the past and continue to believe that the biggest loss in our society has been civility. We can disagree without being disagreeable. The fact that you and I can look at the same facts and come to different conclusions does not make me smart and you stupid. It doesn't even make me right and you wrong. Often, the things we think are facts, are in reality not facts at all. If they were then we would continue to know the earth is flat and at the very center of the universe. That the sun rotates around the earth. We gain knowledge and the "facts" we knew become ignorance we walk away from into a new reality. Now it appears that many believe if you say something loudly and frequently it suddenly becomes true. The solution to shootings at our schools is to introduce more guns to the equation. It sounds to me like the way to put out a gasoline fire is to add more gasoline. After all when all the gas is burned there will be no more fire. There is a solution to gun violence but that solution will not be reached by the various factions screaming at each other. When did civilized conversation and compromise become a sign of weakness? How did this part of our everyday lives become so impossible when we try to discuss public policy? Would we stay in a relationship, or even call it a relationship, if the other person always yelled, always wanted things their way, and never considered any alternative to their position?

So, to my enemies, I offer my forgiveness. It has no conditions or requirements. I forgive you fully and completely. I am sorry that things got to this point and I can and will do better by you. To those who disagree with me about anything and everything. I will listen with and open mind and heart. There is truth in your position as there is in mine. Together we can make progress and find solutions. To my friends, my ongoing commitment to be there in your time of need. The key in my mind to being a friend is to be the friend you would want to have. To my children and grandchildren I hope to be an example you can follow. Finally to all some measure of charity. Abraham Lincoln perhaps said it as well as any in his second inaugural address. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Maybe I should have just gone with Rodney King who stated at the time of the L.A. riots: "Can't we all just get along?"