The words we use matter. And the word that is used a lot these days in the public discourse is “fight”. Every news report, whether it is about education workers fighting for better pay and working conditions, or politicians fighting for their constituents, or Russia fighting for more territory in Ukraine, or whatever the issue of the day happens to be, somebody or some group stands ready to fight for their beliefs. 

I remember when I was in high school, another student I did not know very well, and I had a disagreement. I can’t even recall what it was about, and it doesn’t matter now anyway. But I rallied a bunch of friends behind my point of view that he was an idiot and deserved to be straightened out, and he rallied a bunch of his friends behind him, and the next thing you know we had been pressured by our respective groups of followers to fight it out in the park after school. 

So now it’s getting good right? Big dustup in the park after school. The crowd was riled up and could smell blood. What fun for all! 

We marched defiantly to the park after school with our respective groups of supportive fans. And we did in fact square off in the middle of the baseball diamond surrounded by a throng of bloodthirsty spectators. But what happened next was kind of strange. That fight never happened. We took a long look at each other and realized we did not want to fight each other at all. Whatever our differences were, we figured we could work them out if we talked about them. After about 5 minutes of talking, followed by a handshake, we agreed to disagree and move on. We retired from the battlefield unscarred, and were civil to each other, actually friendly, for the rest of our days in high school. 

The world has much bigger problems than a couple of high school kids who disagree and think they don’t like each other very much, but my point is, we could use a lot more civil discourse amongst the supposed adults who have a platform to influence others. 

Let’s take the word “fight” out of our vocabulary. Instead of “fighting” for what we believe to be true, why not stand up for what we believe, back our beliefs up with actual facts, keep an open mind to what others believe, search for and find common ground we can agree on, work together to find solutions, and carry on. 

Life is too short and our time on this amazing planet is too precious to spend any more time fighting. 

Sincerely
Doug Dougherty
CEO