The other day, I was crossing the Casco Bay Bridge when, at the stoplight at the bottom of State Street, a woman in a big black Nissan with a Texas registration rolled down her window and yelled out at me. I think she was objecting to my license plate. I smiled and quietly rolled on, but the experience stuck with me.

I have so many questions about why she felt the need to yell out her window and why she thought, in that environment, her opinion mattered. The incident offered no opportunity for an exchange of ideas. The experience is so much like what we have become on social media and in our political discourse.

Playwright Aaron Sorkin famously said, in the stage version of “To Kill a Mockingbird”: “A mob is a place where people go to take a break from their conscience.” I suggest that if you are shouting out your window, posting a one-way post on social media or simply yelling at someone in the street, you should consider yourself as part of a mob. This type of behavior only comes from someone wanting to be heard, but not wanting to listen.

If we can start listening deeply to one another again, our country will heal from the fissures we have all created. Our health as a nation is at stake.

Tracy Floyd
Cape Elizabeth

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