There is an excellent CNN commentary, written by Rudy Ruiz, called "Open your minds, America." The article comments on the intolerant and hostile tone in our debate over health care. Ruiz argues that our inability to form rational dialogue is a symptom of a larger problem — "A contagious culture of close-mindedness threatens to suffocate our progress as a society"
"Increasingly, the willingness to change one's position on political issues has been misread as a mark of weakness rather than product of attentive listening and careful deliberation."
How has this happened? The ability to change our opinions in the face of new information is actually a sign of intelligence, yet our culture seems to disparage such self-reflection.
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2009.