Last Wednesday we aired our radio show on the topic of CAM Charges & Building Operating Expenses. It was an "open forum" born from a discussion topic that I started on LinkedIn. The "open forum" concept for the radio show was a new format that I wanted to try out and in essence was and open invitation to anyone who wanted to participate in the conversation. We had 7 highly knowledgeable, intelligent and articulate featured guests and a number of equally intelligent listeners called in to participate.
The point of this post is not to discuss the substance of the radio discussion and CAM charges, but to focus on the interaction between everyone who participated in the show, despite some clear and vigorous disagreement.
So far, every comment about the show from guests and listeners focused on how great the open forum format was, in great part as a result of the courtesy, maturity and intelligence of all who participated in the discussion. Some vociferously disagreed with statements made by others, but there was no apparent animosity and very little if any "stepping on toes," or shouting over others. As a matter of fact, at times during the show, when two people started talking at the same time, they both stopped and there was a moment of silence while each stopped talking to allow the other to speak. Imagine that? Imagine that kind of courtesy in Congress.
I might add that every comment included the word, "fun". How much fun is it to participate in a conversation with other people who are every bit as smart and experienced as you, if not more and can disagree without attacking each other personally. I dare say that each one of us walked away from the show a little bit smarter and knowledgeable than when we started the show.
So what does all of this have to do with congress? Well, from my perspective, Congress and the electorate would benefit from respectfull and intelligent discourse on very complicated social and economic issues without visciouis attacks on others and without blamming each other for everything that has gone wrong in our lifetime. It seems that our energy would be much better spent trying to solve problems with a healthy repect for the opinions, attitudes and paradigms of others even though they might disagree. I think that you would better understand what I am saying if you listened to the radio show. Click the above link or go to www.creradio.com.
Recent Comments