Leaning to listen, think and respond, not talk at, and keep it going!

Interesting events this week.  I happened to stop surfing on Hannity as he was interviewing Rumsfeld.  I stopped long enough  to be impressed with the erudite
man, Donald Rumsfeld, who was speaking and answering questions.  I heard him say that Colin Powell provided the information that led people to believe that there were WMD.  I also heard him say that wonderful Condoleeza Rice, as an academic does, took time to ponder and look at all angles. to make the right decisions, and this is not always best for situations that need quick action. (If you are a business person, you know that sometimes you have no choice except to take the best action possible, because a swift decision has to be made).

The next night, I heard Chris Matthews,  on Hard Ball discuss the same book from a whole different point of view than the author in his own voice was trying to convey.
Chris totally blamed Rumsfeld for the problems that were discussed by him in his book and  Matthews further said that Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell should be going after Rumsfeld.

So, we have an author with a point of view based on his experience.  Then we have a non involved person reading the authors book and completely disagreeing with the author, althought the people involved have not denied the authors observations..( yet)

This is an example of why we have serious communication problems between the two political parties.
One person sets forth his views, and the next person responds, both  are trying to win, from their point of view.  While we speak at each other in this manner, we are not listening , but each attempting to win a war of points of view.

We need to listen , learn more and respond with good intentions., to reach accord.   Maybe if we came at our news shows with a better intent instead of a hardened point of view, it would help change the attitude that is prevalent.  I hope we are not going to go through another Presidential election that points fingers, lets move on with absolute positive plans that indicate the road ahead and where we need to slow down, stop, change course, etc. but get somewhere at a certain time.  One thing you have to say for O'Reilly on The Factor,
he does try and keep an open mind, and listen to the other side, you may not all agree, but just compare him to Keith Olbermann, and it will be very clear, what I am talking about.  We must give credit to those that are trying hard to change the attitude, to reach for good intent.

 One of the best people in the business, is Charles Krauthammer, listen to that man think and respond., maybe you will agree with me, he is a gem!Cutting Edges: Making Sense of the Eighties