[Why] Can't we just get along?

It's just words, right?

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you....."

Got up this morning and started browsing through the news. On thing lead to another and in moments, I found an article by a TED fellow. I love TED. Great ideas. The pen is mightier than the sword, and all that crap.

"We have nothing to fear but...."

Just the other day a bunch a Yale frat-boys had their new members go through an initiation rite. But this time, it hurt. Not only the new members, who demonstrated they lacked common sense. Not just the fraternity, or Yale the university. It hurt everybody. Everywhere. We lost dignity.

"Four score and seven years ago...."

What was this deed gone awry? The recruits were marched through a section of Yale where the female dorms are located. They were blindfolded, all chanting "No means yes. Yes means anal." The result was a firestorm of disgust, aimed at the recruits and the fraternity.

It's just words, right?

That's when I found a response titled "Purple Pill", written by the TED fellow. Esther Chae is as eloquent as the frat-boys were dumb. Read her thoughts here. Do it now.

Ahhh, chants and sound bites. The inspire us. They cause us to act. But as Ester points out, there are real people who feel the effect of those chants and slogans. For good and bad. It's easy to forget that, while swept along by a simple slogan.

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all......"

It's just words, right?

"I know you would have never done what you did, if you knew it was me...."

But it is me. And you. A slogan stands between us. Or not. What will we choose?