I have been thinking lately about empathy. For some players on the state and national political stage empathy is a weakness indulged in by “losers.” The opposition is “stupid” or “evil” or “nasty.”
Empathy, the willingness and spirit to put yourself in another’s position and see the world from their perspective is seen by some as an idealistic value having no place in a winner-take-all world. But without empathy we cannot have real community where people work through differences to arrive at solutions that all parties can feel good about knowing that their needs and concerns are valued and considered.