Workplace Calisthenics: Dissenting views should be respected, not reviled

Cal LeMon, of Executive Enrichment Inc., solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting.

To the passive patriot who continues to tape messages to my office door: make an appointment.

If you regularly read this column, you know I took a position questioning the war in Iraq before the first rocket-propelled grenade was fired. Specifically, I was not convinced about the credibility of the evidence that weapons of mass destruction actually existed in this regime.

Several days later, I went to my office and found my column taped to the front door with the word "SAD" scrawled in red letters across the copy.

I was disappointed and confused that this writer chose to not enter my offices, ask for a few minutes of my time to explain to me why my position was so sad. "Sad" is a good word, but I'm not sure which of its 487 contextual meanings fits me.

The saga goes on.

About two weeks ago I went early to the office only to find that the midnight, red-pen renegade had struck again. This time my first column appeared with an attached UPI story that some "suspected material" had been found in Iraq that might lead to confirmed weapons of mass destruction. (As of May 22, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.)

Of course, the felt-tip freedom lover had been at work again with the next literary contribution, "Prayer Answered."

Here's the deal. Weapons of mass destruction may be found in Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction are not the issue; rather, this silent, passive-aggressive, innuendo-laden communication is an all-too-common illustration that when we disagree with each other we take the easy way out and castigate one another.

Why is it, in a nation that waves the flag over individual freedom, do we turn a back, raise an eyebrow, openly question patriotism and cry "Saddam-Lover" when anyone questions the party line?

Why in our workplaces are careers "redlined" and promotions cancelled because someone did not share the same perception as the boss? Why do we roll our eyes, aspirate heavily and physically turn away when, at a civic hearing, someone makes a comment that is outside the "norm"?

The Constitution makes it specifically clear that freedom of thought and speech is an "inalienable right." People are ripping their bodies on barbed wire fences and sitting for hundreds of hours learning the language I'm writing in right now so they can breathe deeply the rarified atmosphere of freedom.

If the fear of being politically incorrect silences our dissent from the majority, then we have created a backslidden republic.

In my corporate education programs, I will flash on the screen, for two seconds, an image that has a duck and a rabbit in it. When I ask the group, "What did you see?" I will most often hear, "Duck."

I can tell from looking at the group that there is at least one person who sees the "rabbit," but will not say anything. I will ask again, "Did anyone see anything else besides a duck?" Silence.

Then, some brave soul will whisper, "I think I saw a rabbit."

When the duck-people hear rabbit, the whispering, elbows jabbed into each other's sides, name-calling and laughter gets rolling. Before long, from the back of the room, someone will call out, "Yeah, right, and what have you been smoking?"

I am alarmed that our society continues to escalate denigrating statements about the "rabbit" people among us.

You and I may not agree about gun control, choice of book titles in our classrooms, the role of Wal-Mart in the American economic system, governmental price supports for tobacco farmers, euthanasia and Jim Carrey.

So what! If I am the only person in Springfield, Mo., that does not see life the way you do, is it necessary to scrawl large, red words on my perception in the middle of the night?

Americans, people suckled on liberty, should to be able to sit down with each other and say, not scream, "I do not agree with you. I only see a duck. Please show me the rabbit."

To the Magic Marker Maven of Middle America, who undoubtedly is already warming up the copy machine and pulling out fresh tape: make an appointment.