Common things don't interest most people
Wharton Chamber News

Fact of life: Human nature seems to look for what's different rather than what's in common.

If human nature was otherwise, the Middle East would be at peace, the Twin Towers would be standing, our troops would be at home from Iraq, and no one around the globe would tolerate assassination in lieu of democracy.

There was a recent study that suggests that the more homogeneous a community, the more trusting were the people who lived there. Conversely, the more diverse a community, the more distrusting were the people who lived there.

That's awful, but human nature does not seem to want to be negotiable. It is a fact, like the weather.

All too often, we focus on "us" versus "them."

"Us" are always right. "Them" is always wrong. "Us" are surely better than "them."

Since human nature is … well … human nature, we don't have to avoid this reality. We can actually embrace it!

We simply make use of it, and, actually all for the common good. It's a matter of definition - defining things in a moral and productive fashion.

For example, us and them is not the defense and the offense on the same football team.

Them is the other team. Compete with them, not with each other inside the locker room.

Us and them is not the sales force versus the shipping department of a large company. Them is the other company that makes a similar product. Compete with them, and not each other at the office.

Close to home: Us is all of Wharton County.

Them are other regions competing for the same jobs, the same products, the same travelers, the same dollars.

It is a matter of perspective.

Think of the word "synergy."

The Oxford American Dictionary defines synergy as "the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects."

It's simple: our county is greater than the sum of its individual parts - so we can be better, stronger, more capable of improving the lives of our residents through focusing on the long view, as civilized, moral beings.