I’ve been doing a bit of thinking about events of the past
week. Now, I’m not taking any kind of position here, just wanted to share
something I’ve been mulling over. First, we had the inauguration of President
Trump. There are a lot of reasons that people give for why he is now our
president. I’ve come to a personal conclusion that one of those reasons is that
people didn’t take his candidacy seriously. People laughed about him running
for president and made jokes about those who supported him. Now he had his
share of flaky people at his rallies and unfortunately that was where the media
focused. Flaky candidate, flaky supporters, big joke; only they won.
Second, we had the Women’s March. So what does the media
focus on here, the flakes and they had their share. When you only focus on the
flakes, then it is so much easier to write them off and make them a big joke. Every
movement, every protest, every march has flakes in their midst. I’ve been in
enough protests and marches to know. But, it would be as much a mistake to try
and write them off as it was to try and write President Trump and his people
off as a joke.
Those who wrote off Trump as a bad joke made a grave
mistake. Those who write off those who participated in the Women’s March and
their concerns do so at their own peril. This is not to say that is a matter of
agreeing with either camp, but if we don’t at least give one another a serious
hearing, we are in error. The concerns and complaints of Trump’s supporters
weren’t taken seriously, if they were heard at all and now he is the President.
Will the Trump camp make the same mistake themselves? Will they disregard millions? I just think we need to
try to listen, without trying to formulate a response before we’ve heard them
out. Good luck pretending that either will disappear.
Proverbs 18:13
To answer before listening—
that is folly and
shame.
James 1:19
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone
should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.
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