This really solidified for me the importance of communication. Had I and the other party had meaningful conversations about things at a regular interval, we never would have gotten to the point we were at. I bring this up because I think most of the problems we have in the world are due primarily to a lack of real conversation. It is so easy to become insular to other points of view. Too often, we entrench ourselves and at the slightest sign of contention, we explode upon one another. This manifests itself in violence, shouting, anger, passive aggressive manipulation, and so on. My point is that we need to stop and breathe, and then really talk about things. There are tough issues that we have to deal with, but if we establish a frequent and open dialogue, there are no limits to what amazing things we can accomplish together. OlyBlog is the seed of that, let's keep it going. Let's welcome dissent, let's not get in the way of progress. True progress involves us all.