Compromise

The Journal-Press has recently received a few letters to the editor regarding political signs being stolen from yards. I’ve noticed that certain signs in my neighborhood were there one day and gone the next. I assume that they were stolen. I doubt that the people who placed them in their front yard suddenly changed their mind regarding who they are voting for. What drives this mentality and behavior? Do people think that taking someone’s property is going to tilt the election in the favor of whatever candidate they are backing and somehow affect the outcomes on November 5? Are the days of compromise gone?

The two-party political system in America has its pros and cons. It can create a system of checks and balances when elected officials work together and find solutions that bring compromise to an issue, but it can also create the illusion of an “us-versus-them” mentality. 

It’s easy to fall into the trap and false belief that your party has all the answers and can never be wrong. Government is run by human beings. Mistakes will be made, and words will be misspoken. Some policies will benefit certain groups of people, others will not. The key is to work towards compromise. 

Whenever I read stories of politicians from differing political affiliations working across party lines and achieving compromise I take notice, because it seems to be such a rarity in modern times. Compromise can be difficult to achieve, but worth the effort. 

I worked as an instructional assistant for a few years at the elementary school my kids attended. I observed first-hand the no-cost school lunch program implemented in our state. It’s an example of pros and cons with room for compromise and further improvements. 

On the positive, having to cover the cost of school lunch was one less thing some families had to worry about and reduced the financial burdens they faced, freeing up money that could be spent on food for dinners. A lot of the leftover lunch food was also sent home with students on the weekends. Studies suggest that the earth produces enough food to feed the world three times over. “The Good Lord Provides” as the saying goes, but he leaves it up to us to manage the distribution. 

On the flipside, you see a lot of waste in a school cafeteria, food, garbage, etc. Whenever you’re tasked with feeding 700 kids in the span of two hours, there’s going to be waste. Kids are messy. It’s unrealistic to expect to feed a mass of people and not have waste, but is there room for compromise? Can the system be improved to reduce waste? 

The topic of free school lunch is just one example of many where certain policies help some folks, whereas others won’t see a direct benefit and a certain level of waste is created.

I don’t have an answer or solution to many of the problems we face, but with compromise, maybe some improvements can be made over time. My hope is that society can find a way to work towards compromise again, even if it means that things will not always be 100% the way we would like them to be. 

I hope people see through the illusions of back-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking, but I’m not naive. When you have people stealing signs from yards, ranting on social media apps, and blaming various political groups for the imperfections of life… I fear that society might be too far gone, and the days of compromise have left us behind.