If the conversation at your Thanksgiving table turns to politics today, some points made by former President Bill Clinton at Kansas University this week, might be worth pondering.

First, even though you like or love those people at the table enough to share the holiday with them, you may not share all of their political views. That’s good, according to Clinton. One of America’s greatest remaining bigotries, he said, is, “We don’t want to be around anyone who disagrees with us.” Diverse groups with varied opinions are much more likely, he contended, to come up with creative ideas and solutions.

Those solutions often require compromise, but that’s also a good thing, said Clinton, who was in Lawrence to accept the 2015 Dole Leadership Prize presented by the Dole Institute of Politics. Although the institute’s namesake, former Sen. Bob Dole, wasn’t able to attend Clinton’s lecture, the former president was free with his praise for Dole and his willingness to work in a bipartisan manner.

When Clinton was president and Dole was the president of the U.S. Senate, they often were on opposite sides of an issue, Clinton said, but they kept their doors open to potential compromise. “One of the things I always liked about Bob Dole is that he could fight you like there’s no tomorrow, but he never closed the door on something that could help a real person.”

Clinton also extolled the U.S. Constitution, which is designed to require compromise. The essence of the Constitution, he said, really boils down to “Let’s make a deal.”

On Thanksgiving, it also seems appropriate to consider Clinton’s message about the common bonds of humanity. The sequencing of the human genome determined that all of humans’ physical differences — race, gender, body type, etc. — account for only one half of one percent of the human genome. “It means that we’re 99.5 percent the same,” Clinton said. It’s wrong, he said, to believe that our differences outweigh our commonalities.

That may seem a little simplistic, but it’s a nice thought on a day like today.

We all should be thankful that we live in a country that allows us to freely discuss and debate our different points of view. Along with that right, however, comes a responsibility to listen to one another, consider other points of view and, finally, be willing to compromise for the benefit of “real people.”

Bob Dole and Bill Clinton didn’t often agree, but instead of letting their differences lead to gridlock, they found ways to work together and benefit the common good. It’s a model that others would do well to emulate today.

Whether you talk about politics or the weather today, we hope you have a wonderful holiday surrounded by friends and loved ones — those who agree with you, as well as those who don’t!

Happy Thanksgiving!