What is cooperation? It is working together for a mutual benefit. It is teamwork. It is working together peacefully. Cooperation is best accomplished in a calm atmosphere where people communicate freely and easily.

Cooperation involves working as a team, listening to each other, encouraging peers, allowing and inviting others to contribute their talents and skills, and following as well as leading. People who cooperate together use their strengths for the common good.

Ralph and Doug used an "attack dog" style rather than cooperate with other people. They used troubling innuendoes and cited "iffy" facts to accentuate their tactics. It was embarrassing to watch and terrifying to see someone on the receiving end.

They were not trying to cooperate. The use of innuendo and citing iffy facts helped fuel the anger of others who were unaware or refused to accept the true facts of the situation.

Ralph seemed to lead the attack, but Doug fueled it with his iffy facts. Together, they made a formidable team, dysfunctional as it was. Their style was dysfunctional because nothing good seemed to get accomplished, and teamwork and cooperation was discouraged rather than encouraged.

Working together and cooperating are old concepts. Dag Hammarskjold was Secretary General of the United Nations and practiced “quiet diplomacy” to reduce conflict between countries. The Wright Brothers took years to perfect their flying machine with patient, cooperative experimenting. Ralph Bunche was a black diplomat whose efforts led to armistice in the first Arab-Israeli War.

We learn in kindergarten to play fair, share, and don't run with scissors. Kindergarten encourages us to treat everyone with patience, happily do what we are asked to do, help others, practice good sportsmanship, and be a good loser.

My mother always told me to treat others equally and fairly. She wanted her children to think before talking or acting. She wanted us to do our fair share of the work on a project, pitch in with chores, work toward a goal, and help clean up.

She was big on cleaning up because she didn't want us to leave behind a mess. Ralph and Doug seemed to be leaving behind a mess. They would have been in trouble with my mother.

Sometimes the best lessons learned are taught to us when we are young. Perhaps it was because I was paddled often when I was young, but I remember well my kindergarten and mother's lessons.

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