Last night I had the pleasure of competing with two fellow competitors in a Toastmasters speech contest. My friend Louis clearly gave the best speech and won the contest. That said, I had a great experience stepping out of my comfort zone. Today’s blog is the text of the speech that I delivered:
Finding the Needle of Common Ground in the Haystack of Polorization
It was your typical Saturday night. Mom, Dad, my brother Jim, & I were in the family room watching TV; Boy the way Glen Miller Sang. Songs that made the Hit Parade. GLORIA, YOU MARRIED A MEATHEAD! All in the Family was the story of a working-class family headed by Archie Bunker, a bigoted conservative who was constantly arguing with his liberal son-in-law, Michael. Archie’s wife Edith waited on him hand and foot and daughter Gloria was torn in conflict with a love for her father and for her new husband.
Contest Chair, fellow Toastmasters, welcome guests; Can I have a show of hands of boomers who laughed with their parents while watching All in the Family?
Much like the early ‘70’s, there’s a huge haystack of polarization dominating the world. Many of us believed our views to be the only views that are rightous. People who disagree are either evil, ignorant, or unpatriotic. it’s as if we’re severing our relationship with half of our fellow citizens.
If you watched All in the Family, you probably remember the Generation Gap. That was a term coined in the late 60’s by Life Magazine, describing the haystack of polarization between Baby Boomers and their parents.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There’s a path to a shining needle of common ground, and the pathway is a 3 sided triangle. The first side is humor. As with families all over the country laughing while they watched All in the Family, we realized that it’s hard to stay mad at people you’re laughing with. I stress laughing with, not laughing at.
The second side to the triangle is communication. Successful communication involves listening, thinking, and speaking. IN THAT ORDER. Remember the saying, “two ears & one mouth? With communication there are possibilities, when communication stops, possibilities vanish.
The third side of the triangle is empathy. Dylan Morran said it best on a TED Talk, “Empathy is not Endorsement.” Mr. Morran argues that “Empathizing with someone you profoundly disagree with does not compromise your own deeply held beliefs and endorse theirs. It just means acknowledging the humanity of someone who was raised to think very differently.”
Friends, it’s up to us. Our leaders have never made it easy for us to get along:
- In 1970, the Vice President of the United States called the media nattering nabobs of negativity.
- The current president calls the media the enemy of the state.
- At the close of a press conference in 1942, President Roosevelt handed a Nazi Iron Cross to a reporter and asked him to award it to a NY Daily News Reporter he didn’t like. FDR accused that reporter of providing aid and comfort to the enemy.
Since our leaders don’t make it easy, it’s up to us to take it upon ourselfs to find our friendly humor, communication, and empathy to discover what we have in common rather that what divides. As we do that, we’ll reach into that haystack of polarization and the shining needle will find us.
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