But mostly, I believe in acceptance.

And I want to believe that people as a whole aren't close-minded and just plain mean about other's beliefs. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I do.

I'm prepping for our magazine's expo, just a couple weeks away now, which is featuring Howard Dean.  As Howard Dean is, yes, liberal and a fan of universal health care, we've been getting some angry emails, calls and RVSPs of the blatant "no way!" variety. I understand that to a lot of you brokers, health insurance is your livelihood, and health reform directly threatens that. So you don't want to hear constant "propaganda" for it.

But outright refusal to see Dean's session—just one part of educational sessions, conversation and debate you'll find at the expo—is both shortsighted and shortchanging.

And in case you haven't heard, Karen Hughes (yes the Bush administration's Karen Hughes) will be a keynote speaker, too. So we'll get two sides of the argument.

Trying to ignore that the other side doesn't exist—or that you're too good to hear it—has always left me scratching my head. I still get excited about the State of the Union address, even if big, bad liberal Obama is the one delivering it. And I don't refuse to talk to some of my family members who have drastically different beliefs than I do.

Listening to another side of the argument doesn't mean you're advocating for it. Listening—as any preschooler can tell you—is a good quality to have.

I lost respect for a former colleague of mine the day she said to me, when reading at her desk, "Anyone who voted for Bush is a moron, and if I knew who they were, I wouldn't talk to them again."

Suffice to say, when Obama came to our workplace, she wore an Obama pin, made a sign and talked about how amazing he was. When John McCain came, she told me she'd sooner die than waste an hour of her life to listen to him.

I happily went to both—and even saw Libertarian candidate Bob Barr just for good measure. They gave me issues to think about, and I certainly came out of it more educated and a person better prepared to make what I thought was the best voting decision.

Maybe this is all too naïve of me to think, but with something as important as political repercussions—and in a broker's case, something that's directly affecting their business— it's best to consume as much education as possible. And yes, I'm even saying this about Dean, who has in the past slammed the Republican party as a group of "corrupt" and "evil" individuals.

And even if you go and still don't respect him or agree with him, you can get discussion out of it. Or better yet, maybe some entertainment. You never know if he'll go into some screaming rant about taking over the country again. 'Cause that would be awesome.