Democratic Conversation

by James Houda

Change. What is it? Do we just understand it better than its synonyms; how about “modification” or “alteration” for the future?

“We shall mutate your future!”

Now that’s a slogan I can get behind.

How does anyone truly effect change with those powerhouse slogans in mind? Change is not something that is easily embraced. The fear of
the unknown is enough to cause individuals to bury themselves in familiarity, watch old television shows, eat macaroni and cheese, vote
for the same sorts of people that we’ve voted for in the past. But look, instead, to the words of FDR, a truly inspirational speaker, who
said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” at a time of depression, hopelessness and impending chaos abroad. He meant, I think, fear of change.

It seems that the start of change should come from the rhetoric, words that move persons to look inside of themselves, words that cause one to re-think what they have come to believe to be true or right. Americans as a people have been blessed from time to time by nothing
so much as a well-formed paragraph—from Thomas Paine telling us that “These are the times that try mens’ souls,” to Abraham Lincoln’s
Gettysburg Address, to FDR inspiring millions to great action during the Second World War. Words seem almost flimsy, meaningless, in the
face of real problems. However, they are the beginning of the process. We as individuals will each take something different from a turn of the phrase. Each will be motivated to a goal through different courses, to change, to lay the course, to find a new beginning. Does it start with the word “change”?

The people are responsible for the change itself. You, all of you reading this, must be the ones to dedicate yourselves to the direction that you feel is right, or leave society unaffected. A leader is only that, someone who gives voice to the will of the people. If there wasn’t dissatisfaction within the populous, then there would be no need for a shift. Each one of us is, in the end, an agent of change, the start of a new direction, the beginning of the discussion. We must not be silent in the face of wrongs and slights. We start by talking to the people near us and those that we meet, leading to the exchange of ideas. Conversation, individual conversations, one speech exchanged for another, creates the possibility of change. One has to be open to the idea that our own beliefs are not always right. Otherwise, there is no possible change.

Nowadays, there is a word that gets thrown around with some frequency, flip-flop, that has stifled the idea of changing ones opinion. This term should be ignored. The constant exchange of ideas can lead to a change in one’s opinion and belief, or at least generate new thought on a given subject. To give short shrift to differing ideas, even within one person, is the fear that is at the heart of being set in one’s ways.

The mind and thought process is like the human body itself, always evolving. Where would we be today if no one ever changed their mind about the world being flat? That the sun revolves around the earth? We could not soar in the the skies like a bird. Progress is impossible, social, scientific, cultural, without the open exchange, the ability to see new ways of doing, seeing, and thinking on a subject. What is needed is the courage to accept a new idea. Maybe this is one of the missing ingredients in the mix, courage, finding it in oneself to modify our own beliefs.

How truly transformational to all of us that we might not be right, that there are newer and better ways to approach a situation than what
we, to this point, have held as the absolute truth. What a nexus we would achieve in grasping change, to move forward in our development
as individuals, cultures, and races. Absolutism should be abandoned for reason—learned thought is just that: learned. All of us should
make every effort to be informed as much as possible on the topics of the day. When we have the courage to accept a different opinion, then we can move forward.

Do not fear change, or even changing your mind. Embrace it and make it your own. Become part of the discussion and not a roadblock to advancement. All change is difficult at first, yet most has proved over the course of time to have been for the better. So let us all make a difference by simply examining the way that we look at the information that is before us. This is the start of what is known as change.