The Star published a number of LTEs about the incident at Arlington, including Sunday's edition where the writer accuses opponents of cherry picking facts. The real problem is this: everyone is right and everyone is wrong.
Huh? Latest research on decision making shows that "the many nested systems of human interaction that produce that result (political disagreement) are immensely complex. The full explanation for interpretation polarization requires a gestalt understanding of not just politics, but the psychology of reasoning, motivation, social rewards, social costs, norms, beliefs, attitudes, and values, not just at the level of the human interaction, but within individual brains right down to neurons, hormones and ganglia."
Whether it's masks or no masks, pedophiles at pizza joints, murdering hordes breaching borders, stolen elections, it's actually much more complicated than it seems.
Still, through this unfathomable chasm of political division there is hope for common ground: character--in those who would guide us. We're hard wired for right and wrong and must not abide a leader without it.β
Rick Rappaport
Oro Valley
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.