YES! And… could save the world! Seriously think about it.

If anytime someone said “BLACK LIVES MATTER”, with or without the #hashtag, we all – ALL – said “YES! And this is how I am going to help realize that fact.”

YES! And… could save the world!

I hope Donald Trump is listening…

Instead we often get, “NO, BLUES LIVES MATTER!” As if to say BLUE is more important than BLACK. The #blacklivesmatter movement is not a war cry, cry of help. Folks of various non-white skin tones feel under attack, the same ways my Irish relatives once were, as were Italian and any other new immigrant group.

Of course if you out of now where said BLUE LIVES MATTER or ALL LIVES MATTER I would respond just as quickly, “YES!”

But out of ignorance and/or fear, folks feel the need to reject simple reality. There is a total lack of empathy in virtually every argument made in Washington DC these days.

I respect one’s belief abortion is murder. I equally respect a woman’s right to choose. My personal view, PRO CHOICE is the politically conservative view.

I believe we often have too much restrictions on business. However, others that lift too many regulations are leading us to disaster. Folks seem to want to restrict a woman’s right to choose but letting Bernie Madoff and friends thrive at expense of others is fine.

Sure folks should have right to own guns, but surely we can agree regulating guns, at least as much as we regulate a car or driver’s license makes sense.

I do not hope to persuade anyone here to my beliefs. But I beg ALL to start working towards understanding the other side and try the YES And… technique outside of Improv class and shows.

Name one topic that has had an intelligent debate in the past 20 years. Perhaps you have been on the winning or losing side of a particular vote, but almost anything “accomplished” in DC since 2000 was enacted by Presidential Executive order OR by congress in the few years White House and Capitol building controlled by same party.

I remember in the mid to late 1980s when my civics teachers talked about polarization. By the 1990s I left all party affiliation in disgust for extreme left and right wing rhetoric. Neither GOP or DNC seemed to be a valid home for me. So many did the same as the country’s “independent” / moderate population grew. The result left a GOP & DNC in the hands of extremists.

When Barack Obama won, the GOP base decide it needed to go farther to the right. In recent weeks, after the win of Donald Trump, the DNC appears to be making similar cries to the left.(PS I hate Right/Left terms but suitable for this argument).

DC has become a world consumed with the word “NO!”

But imagine a DC that discovered the concept of “YES! And…”

Aaaaaahhhhhh…..

(Excuse me while I take a moment of pure imaginary bliss…)

Imagine a DC where actual topics are discussed and debated with intelligence and facts, not emotions, opinions and beliefs.

Aaaaaahhhhhh…..

Imagine a world where everyone was looking out for everyone else, and not their own agendas for power….

Aaaaaahhhhhh…..

As GOP & DNC representatives go back and forth with their 5 minutes of time on the floor, imagine them starting every debate with  “YES! and…”

Aaaaaahhhhhh…..

No one individual has all the answers. No one position is ever going to right for everyone.

The only way to move forward is a healthy discussion – full of empathy for opposing view points, followed by debate, followed by a final compromise.

I challenge EVERY Senator, Congressperson and Presidential team member to embrace the YES! And.. philosophy. It cannot solve your problems, but it is a tool to finding common ground and working together with those of opposing view points to find solutions to very real problems.

If you do not like the trash talk about you and the extremely low approval ratings, start working together towards a more perfect union.

FOR MORE INFO ON HOW TO APPLY maybe read yesterday’s post CLICK HERE