We have become:—A nation of discord, discontent, dislike, hate, suspicion.—A nation where everyone’s spoken word is searched for any nuance that can be interpreted as racial, demeaning, socially or politically incorrect. Are we so honed in on certain words that everything else is lost in translation?—A nation of interpreted news reports slanted to support particular views.—A nation in which slander and derision are accepted in entertainment, comedy, government, news, schools, elections, and so many other venues.

This degradation has been building for decades.

We are not listening; we are not hearing. We are creating our own version of truth through selective hearing in accordance with what we want to hear or believe rather than what is said or meant.

The shame is that it is so easy to see these actions/attributes in someone else but rare to see the same in ourselves.

What are we teaching our children and grandchildren:

—To get what they want is to demand, not listen, mi...