>Two nights ago I watched the 2-hour YouTube Democrat debate presentation. Let me say, at the outset, that while a registered Democrat my entire adult life, I vote for the person best qualified  for the job, regardless of party. Let me also say that as of this writing, I have no particular candidate that I am inclined to vote for, from any party.  I feel the need to say all of this up front so that there’s no mistaking what I am about to say.
   Having watched the debate beginning to end, I am now somewhat put off by the Clinton campaign’s two-day attempted assault on the competency of Barak Obama based upon one particular answer. Obama said that if elected, he would meet with heads of state from any and all countries within the first year of his Presidency, including states that are hostile to the U.S. He thought to do otherwise was counter-productive to world peace.
   The Clinton campaign is saying Obama “got that answer wrong.” They want to play up the difference between what he said and what Hilary Clinton said, which was that she would be open to such meetings but would first 1)verify that the meeting was not being used for propaganda and 2) be certain that such a meeting would do no further harm. 
   While this was Mrs. Clinton’s opinion, it neither makes her right nor Mr. Obama wrong. It simply makes them different.
   Which is what I really want to write about. 
   Allowing others to be who they are and say what they say and do what they do without having to make them right or wrong is what’s important about all of this.
   We’re so quick to need to make others wrong when they see things differently than we do. But really, when we approach differences in that way, it says so much more about us than it does about anyone else. It says we are judgmental, insecure in our beliefs, threatened by opposing views and not open to change or growth.
   I prefer to see differences as grist for my personal mill. They present me with the opportunity to re-examine and refine my own beliefs and perspective. After all, if it was intended that I continuously think as I think and behave as I behave without the benefit of learning from self and others, wouldn’t I have been given my own planet? Why be here with all these other perspectives intruding upon my opinions? 
   I always assume that Creator knew what it was doing(plus or minus an idea or two) when we were all put here together. I further assume the vast diversity and togetherness has a point.
   For me the point is to learn how to develop my own ideas and beliefs, allow others to do the same, and where possible, grow through our differences rather than battle them.
   If you don’t agree with any of this, that’s fine with me. I don’t need you to make me right or wrong to know what I believe. Hopefully, in the making a true leader, Barak Obama feels the same and has no need to defend his beliefs or his policy by making someone else wrong.
   Mrs. Clinton, it appears, has a way to go.

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