Disagreement has always been with us. It is natural, necessary, and inevitable.
What we face now is not the natural byproduct of disagreement, but the consequence of forgetting how to see each other in the midst of it.
When we stop seeing each other, we stop listening; and when we stop listening, disagreement hardens into contempt. What should be the beginning of conversation quickly becomes the end of it.
True understanding asks more of us. It is not passive. It calls on you to step into someone else’s world — to recognize the experiences that gave rise to belief.
Without that kind of understanding, however uncomfortable and unnerving it may be, there is no foundation for progress. Without it, we are left trapped in an echo chamber of fear, anger, and outrage. The path to progress begins with the discipline of seeing one another clearly.
Now, this moment calls for something beyond civility. It calls for healing — for recovering what still binds us, even in the thick of division. Now, more than ever, our world relies on the rediscovery of the common ground that we share.