"Addition over subtraction, multiplication over division" every time...

I wanted to write a little more about former President Clinton's recent speech to the 2018 Becker's Hospital Review 9th Annual Meeting in Chicago this past week (I also talked about this speech in my most recent blog post).  I don't like to get too political, and I will start off to say that there were a lot of things that President Clinton did when he was President that I didn't necessarily agree with, even if I thought he was (and still is) a gifted speaker.  To be perfectly honest though, I agree whole-heartedly with many of the things that he said in his speech last week, and there was one statement that he made that particularly struck home.  I actually looked on the Internet this morning to see if he had said something similar before - he did during an interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show on September 15, 2016.  In his interview then (and he basically said the same thing last week), President Clinton stated:

"America's come so far.  We're less racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-specific religions than we used to be, but we have one remaining bigotry - we don't want to be around anybody that disagrees with us."

Wow.  I had to look up the first part of his statement, just to be sure he was correct.  If anything, it seemed that we have slid back a little during the last couple of years (corresponding, more or less, to the start of the 2016 Presidential Campaign and the subsequent start of the current Administration's term in the White House) compared to where we were a few short years ago.  Not too long ago, I read an article in The Economist that provided some statistics to back up this claim (which surprised me at the time, and still does given the rhetoric we hear today on a daily basis).  For example, only 4% of Americans supported inter-racial marriage in 1958 - compare that to the fact that 50% of Americans supported inter-racial marriage in 1997 and today, almost 90% of Americans do.  According to the FBI, hate crimes declined by over 48% from 1994 to 2015.  Today, more Americans support gay rights and gay marriage than ever before.  The gender gap in pay is shrinking, and more women are in leadership positions than ever before.  Please don't misunderstand me - we have a lot of work left to do, but at least in regards to the first half of his statement that we as a nation are "less racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-specific religions than we used to be", the facts support President Clinton.

The second half of President Clinton's statement struck me the most, as I am perhaps just as guilty as anyone and everyone else.  It is true - "we don't want to be around anybody that disagrees with us."  Why do you think neighborhoods and communities are becoming more and more polarized?  Why do you think community groups, clubs, organizations, and in some cases, schools and colleges are becoming more and more polarized?  All politics is personal, and in our case, as a nation, we are much less tolerant of each others' political views than ever before.  President George W. Bush was speaking at the same conference later in the week (I had to leave the conference early, so I did not get to hear President Bush speak).  President Clinton said of Bush, "When it comes to politics, we sometimes fight like cats and dogs, but we respect each other immensely.  And I am proud to say that we are good friends."  In 2016, former Speaker of the House John Boehner and former Vice President Joe Biden accepted the Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame.  Both Boehner and Biden each stated that while they often disagreed with one another on a number of issues, they both shared immense respect and the deepest admiration and appreciation for all that the other had accomplished.  We need more of this kind of attitude in our political leaders.  But that attitude has to start with us - all of us.

We have big problems to solve, and we have to solve them now for future generations.  President Clinton was exactly right.  We do better when we work together.  Study after study shows that groups composed of diverse opinions, backgrounds, and experiences are more successful at solving problems.  We need that kind of diversity today.  President Clinton emphasized that he would always support "addition over subtraction" and multiplication over division," which is what we need more of today.  It was a great lesson for me personally, and one that I absolutely need to work on and improve in my own personal and professional life.

"Addition over subtraction, multiplication over division" every time...