One of the best things about traveling is that it gives you an opportunity to explore differences between cultures. I’m currently on temporary assignment for the State Department in Brussels, Belgium, and I’m definitely enjoying sampling their local cuisine, speaking French, trying to pick up a few words in Dutch, and learning about life in this country whose capital city is often called the Capital of Europe.

But in addition to the differences, there are also the similarities; the things that make you realize we’re not all that different from one another. I had my first such recognition while reading the neighborhood magazine created for the Brussels suburb I live in. As I read the magazine’s opening story, written by a local government official, I had a moment of déjà vu.

The official was talking about recent community meetings that were organized to discuss possible changes to one of the city’s roadways. According to his commentary, some of these meetings had been attended by very vocal citizens whose discourse had drowned out all other voices and whose aggressive opposition had made others “not dare to speak favorably” of the project. The author felt that individual wants were being heard at the expense of a true discussion on what was best for the community as a whole. Hmmm … this was starting to sound like what some Americans see as the tone of the community meetings on issues like health care and the economic crisis that have recently taken place in the United States.

At the end of his article, the government official asked a series of questions that he felt all representative democracies must try to answer: “What influence should this type of citizen participation have on the final decision?” “Can individualism have the final word?” “Where does the public interest fit in?” “How are minorities represented?” There are no easy answers to these questions. How would you answer them?