Effective Communication??? How???

     Two examples of communication in two very different contexts lead me to a question.  "What must exist before effective communication can exist?"
     I live in the United States.  Although there is no established national language, which everyone here must speak.  In the immigration debate, some have advocated the establishment of a national language.  The premise of their position is, if everyone spoke the same language--English--in the United States, then we would be one step closer to achieving national unity.
     In Europe, smaller geographical sizes of nations demand that residents in each country be fluent in more than their native language.  Such fluency requires learning different words, different grammatical structures of the different languages being learned.
     It is simplistic to say that there is no conflict between European nations.  Government structures, political systems, different cultural, and faith traditions well may contribute to civil unrest, and discord.  Yet, having to learn another language calls for flexibility, and understanding.  These two well may serve as cornerstones of effective communication.
     The health care debate, and now the budget debate in the U.S. Congress have raised the discord among our elected officials.  I was raised with a very positive attitude--positive role models--toward elected officials.  For the most part, I have not been cynical regarding politics.  Yet, the closer I find the issues cutting to the core of my daily needs--my potential daily needs--I seek a higher level of public discourse than I hear.
     My intent in writing this blog is not to espouse a specific political position.  There are plenty of individuals who fill that need.  All that any individual needs to do is to enter the issue of interest to them in their favorite search engine, along with the word "blog," in order to find an individual, who writes a blog regarding politics.
      How does my discussion of the U.S. congressional debates relate to effective communication?  It is this.  The members of the U.S. Congress all speak English--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, as well as liberals, and conservatives.  Yet, although the congressional representatives' speech, and writing, are governed by the same words, and the same grammatical structures, they do not communicate effectively.
     Recent miscommunication, and complete lack of communication with individuals involved in securing my wheelchair lead me to question the role of indifference.  How do we lower our voices, open our ears, open our minds?  How do we open ourselves to the notion that despite our different human experiences, and life circumstances, our commonalities are greater than our differences?  How do we transform our fears of difference into a richer, stronger bond of effective communication?