Take a moment and imagine the following:
There is a courtroom with all the various decorations and characters playing the roles you would expect. There is the judge in his black robe with his gavel, and over there sits the prosecuting attorney, and across from him the defense attorney. Both the attorneys are sitting in their chairs before the judge, and beside each attorney, their client.
There has clearly been some event which has transpired between the two of these clients that the court is there to sort out and attempt to rectify.
The judge calls forth the prosecution.
The prosecuting attorney steps before the judge, and begins to tell the judge what has transpired between the two clients. He submits to the judge in orderly fashion, each piece of evidence which reinforces his claims as to what took place. As the prosecution wraps up his opening statements to the judge, and presents his evidence... The defense is gathering together his evidence to support his client, and his side of the story.
The prosecution takes a seat, and the judge then turns to the defense...
Suddenly, he picks up his gavel, bangs it down, and loudly proclaims “The defense is found guilty!” before beginning to proclaim the sentence which will be served out by the defendant.
For most of us, witnessing such a court proceeding we would find ourselves in absolute shock and a disgusted disbelief. After all, this isn’t how the processes of fairness and justice are supposed to work! Both sides are supposed to be heard aren’t they? Both sides should have fair and equal opportunity to make their case before coming to any such verdict!
And yet, so many of us, act in exactly the same capacity that the judge has in this story. We align ourselves so strongly with one party or another that we refuse to even be bothered with so much as listening to the other sides argument before we pick up the gavel in our minds, and bang it down making our declaration as to the other sides guilt or innocence.
On occasion, there are those of us who will at times, attempt to make such a court proceeding look good. We will listen to the other side, all the while simply scoffing to ourselves, as we begin to listen, thinking, “Yeah, let’s hear their side, this should be worth a chuckle!”
In fact, there are probably those of you who are already seeking to defend the actions of the judge. That’s fine. I won’t seek to change that. I only put these considerations before people because I know that there are others who will have the common sense and wisdom to understand what I mean here. They are the ones with the wisdom of mind, and the courage of heart enough to be able to look themselves in the mirror and admit to themselves that perhaps they don’t know everything. Perhaps they aren’t as smart as they thought they were. Perhaps they have acted in the capacity of that judge, and perhaps they can benefit from making a conscious effort to change the practices of what goes on in the courtroom of their own minds. Those are the people to whom I speak. Should you still be defending the judge and his actions in this story, then do what you will. That’s entirely your business.
How many of us from the Liberal position, actually sit down regularly and say, “Oh hey, Rush Limbaugh is about to be on, I wanna listen to his show today.”? How many from the Conservative platform think, “Oh crap... Democracy Now is on now... I need to tune in real quick...”? Pretty much none of us right? I suppose birds of a feather do indeed flock together. But because of this, how much information do any of us miss which could lead to more informed decision making?
Like the judge, shouldn’t our job simply be to collect and gather as much facts, data, and overall information on a particular topic or event before we attempt to formulate our verdict or opinion on it?
The reason I bring all this up is because so widely divided a system is easily conquered. Conquered by who? I’ll get around to that later. The important thing is that we take it upon ourselves as individuals to take the total sum of our beliefs, and values, and place them outside, into the torrential downpour and flood of facts and information from all sides.
By doing so, we are benefited in many ways. In some cases, after our beliefs are submitted to such tests, they will indeed weather the storm of facts quite well, and return to us unscathed. Here we are benefited by having our beliefs transformed into something that we no longer just believe, but rather something we KNOW to be true, otherwise, it wouldn’t have held up through the storm.
On the other hand, we are benefited when these beliefs are torn apart and destroyed by the floods and rains of facts, because we are no longer basing our words and deeds from a position which was flawed to begin with.
In short, it makes us wiser, more knowledgeable, judicious and secure people.
I bring all this up because I want people to be able to benefit from the same experiences I have had. There was a time I very strongly considered myself to be in line with the views and ideologies of one of those parties. Some of the views I held then I still hold strongly because they have held up under these tests. Others, I have abandoned as they fell apart the more they were subjected to information from all sides. It’s not an easy process. It’s one which is at times humbling. It is a process marked with humility, sacrifice, mistake and occasionally loss. I’ve had to adopt entirely different world views at times. This isn’t always an easy process. But then, how often does anything truly worthwhile come freely and easily?
Just know that in order for an argument to exist and persist for any length of time, both sides have to have points which are true and right. Without this, no argument or debate can carry forward for any great length of time. People of great character are seldom marked by their lack of mistakes or their flawless records, but rather a highlight of the mistakes they have made and their open, honest willingness to both recognize, and learn from them.
I hope you'll take these words to heart, and make an effort yourself to make the courtroom of your mind one with fair and just proceedings. As always, feel free to share this with family and friends.
Thanks & Happy trails...
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