There is a cultural divide that seperates the great from the good and the good from the evil.  I have found this to be equally true in business, in politics and in life. It's the slipperly slope that leads to horrific customer service, piss-poor cultural identity at the office and the celebration of war and weapons of war in a peacetime society.

There is a subtle transition that takes place in any culture or society when it's constituents go from occasionally living with the less-than-optimal to accepting that this is just the way that things are. And when we begin to regularly accept our failures, we create a cultural that anticipates and even rewards or celebrates this failure.

I have been on teams where people expect and plan for missed deadlines rather than changing their productivity cycles. I have interviewed service representatives who are more concerned about closing the service ticket than satisfying their customers. And I have met hippy-dippy we-love-all-humanity people who regularly carry heavy firepower and sing songs that glorify death to another people.

As an American, as an Israeli and as a human, I struggle with gun control. I recognize the many challenges in this discussion and have studied the historical precidence at length. While no solution is without compromise, we cannot accept the loss our ideals. 

We cannot afford to give up on the things that matter. We can never accept the status quo as "good enough." 

Never let compromise pollute who you are or what you believe in. Don't allow yourself to be defined by the compromises you make, but by the ideals you strive for.