Sometimes barriers are broken in the simplest of ways.\u00a0 Richard Nixon helped open the door to \u201ccommunist China\u201d by agreeing to American Ping-Pong players traveling to China for a series of exhibitions.\u00a0 For years peace activists have arranged for Israeli and Palestinian youth to attend summer camp together in New England.<\/p>\n

The absurdity of hard and fast lines is most obvious in battles between the \u201chaves\u201d and the \u201chaves.\u201d\u00a0 Who wouldn\u2019t want to command a contract of at least $200 million like Albert Pujols or have assets in excess of $4 billion like Cardinal owner Bill DeWitt?\u00a0 Who wouldn\u2019t want the salary of a NFL player or the wealth of a team owner?\u00a0 Drawing hard and fast lines only means that everyone loses.\u00a0 No one ever choked to death swallowing his or her pride.<\/p>\n

What is interesting about the Coke commercial is how the sharing was under the radar.\u00a0 After each guard had enjoyed his Coke, the previous arbitrary line was reestablished.\u00a0 But as viewers we felt good because we knew that expedience could and probably would prevail again, the next time either one of them had something to share.<\/p>\n

There are probably remarkable stories about actual guards near the DMZ in Korea or near the Brandenburg Gate when Berlin was divided.\u00a0 We can be thankful to the police and members of the Egyptian army who did not fire on their own citizens prior to the toppling of Hosni Mubarak.\u00a0 Hopefully Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u2019s thug will let the forces of revolution gently move forward, crossing what was once a hard and fast line in a way that is almost invisible.<\/p>\n

Progressives are justifiably concerned that their presumed representatives in government have thrown away the lines that define liberal principles.\u00a0 There are times when we have to say \u201cno more.\u201d \u00a0One of the lessons of the Coke commercial is reciprocity.\u00a0 Each guard did something for the other.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t seem to be the case with the illusionary bi-partisanship that exists now.\u00a0 Democrats give and receive little in return.\u00a0 Our logjam will not be broken until some brave Republicans do as the first guard did in the commercial.\u00a0 Look around, assess the risk, and wherever possible reach out.<\/p>\n

In a sea of violence and sexism, there was a commercial that stood for integrity and equality.\u00a0 Just on a hunch, I\u2019m betting that more Republicans than Democrats watched the Super Bowl.\u00a0 Maybe one or several of them saw the virtues of cooperation in the quietest commercial of them all.\u00a0 At least we can hope so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There seems to always be a line that can\u2019t be crossed.\u00a0 Real or imagined, people are reluctant to go into unfamiliar or forbidden territory,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,304,834,265],"tags":[901,903,902],"yoast_head":"\n