It's Much Better Than We Think

It’s Better Than You Think.

If you look at the headlines from the past few days you’d think the world and our country are on the brink of destruction.

I’m not denying what’s going on in the Middle East and the turmoil here at home.

But I also think we need to stop listening to the noise and focus more on where we are today, compared to a year or four ago.

I choose to look at yesterday’s “No Kings” protest as one, peaceful, which I think for the most part they were.

Two, we are divided as a nation over ideology and that’s okay.

People on both sides of the isle are unwilling to be silenced and that’s a good thing.

Free speech is more alive today than it was a year or two ago, so that too is a positive.

We agree that America does not want a King or a Queen running the place we just disagree over who was more authoritarian and the definition of that word gets muddled in the usual spin.

When we step away from the computer and get around real humans the conversations are much more civil.

People like me, who felt silenced and stifled during the last administration now feel free to speak openly and the threat of cancelation has few teeth so the bite isn’t as bad.

For decades one ideology seemed to prevail but that’s not true anymore.

The pendulum is moving back and while that tends to rock the boat, it will settle as reality sets in for those who once held the keys to the castle.

It’s time to dethrone the palace and lighten up on the rhetoric.

The sky is not falling.

Our democracy is no longer at risk.

Truth is coming out and those who twist are being twisted.

Kathy and I are back in Oregon visiting and in talking with complete strangers, find a sense of wellbeing and hope in them.

There’s still plenty of head scratching and non-belief in our culture but that’s okay.

Oregon has a lot of work to do as people seek fairness and leadership that leans not far left or right but back to the middle.

But change is here.

The usual name calling and canceling has lost its power.

At some point real conversations will begin.

But it’s still too early for a pow-wow.

Lessons are still being learned.

If we move too quickly balance will be bargained away for a false sense of getting along.

Humility is a long road and if a step is skipped will lead us right back to where we started.

We won’t go back.

Yeh, it’s much better than we think.