Have You Been Listening?

I ask few people their beliefs or political persuasion. I do see comments and post on social media and wonder if they would say the same thing face-to-face?

The other day, listening to ‘On Point’ on NPR (oops! Just lost half my readership) and they have a call-in portion where people with nothing better to do or a strong conviction to the topic at hand voice their opinions and thoughts.

Most of those call-in shows I turn off or in my sanctimonious smugness laugh at what I hear, but this time I listened to the callers. Could hear their confusion of thoughts and ideas or just plain crazy rational for their call.

Then I started to ask myself, “Who are these people?” Some are retired but some are young. Some are white and some are of different diversities. You can learn a lot if you listen to the voices.

These are Americans. These are the people from cities I’ve not gone to with histories I don’t know. They are rural farmers with concerns of tariffs and students with massive loans. They are gays rejoicing in their pride and blacks worried about their hides. They are people who confirm their impressions into beliefs at the dinner table or the roadside diner. Over a drink at the corner bar or a knitting circle strengthen the bias without any comparison research or investigation of other options. This is America calling in.

I think about the callers. Who are they? What brought them to this call? What happened to them or their family to bring them enough gumption to pick up the phone and place a call?

I think of myself as a fairly educated person with an open mind to opinions and ideas. I may not agree with them and may ask questions and research further in the context of the comment or statement. I may provide different point-of-view to create a civil debate. I don’t want anyone to persuade me and I will not be persuaded. In this America there is freedom of speech and better yet, thought?

I don’t listen to many talk shows for the callers seem to only want to confirm what is being discussed by a panel of unknown ‘experts’, but I will listen to well thought out ideas from different viewpoints to better understand the topic.

Listening to my countrymen and women I get a better idea of who voted this president into office. It scares me America. It scares me.