She who was called, “America’s Grandmother” died this week at the young age of 92. Seeing all the articles about Barbara Bush on TV I grew more interested in her life. As First Lady, she seemed to have had very definite opinions about things, but was also wise enough to say that she “just could not make that choice for someone else.” About some of the issues that divide this nation today, she also said that,"... personal things should be left out of, in my opinion, platforms and conventions." She is known to have fought for literacy in America. As I listened to the many reports about her life and accomplishments, one particular saying of hers attracted my attention. During George W Bush presidency she saw the downward spiraling of the political conversation and said,“I hate the fact that people think 'compromise' is a dirty word.” Is “compromise” a dirty word? What is a compromise anyways? It is a word coming from the Latin and means, “A Mutual promise”. According to the dictionary, a compromise is: “an agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions.”; "an ability to listen to two sides in a dispute, and devise a compromise acceptable to both." This year I have been teaching my class of teenagers about the American Constitution. As I studied it myself, I stumbled into a study of the Constitutional Convention. I read many of the debates, disputations, and argumentation of the people that were present at that history changing convention. At the end, I realised that the American constitution was signed by people who each had to give a little in order to come to an agreement. Like Barbara Bush, they did not believe that “compromise”, or the “ability to listen to two sides in a dispute, and devise a compromise acceptable to both”, was a dirty word. And neither should we!
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