I’ve always been a voracious reader of opinion columns, news and sports, and can remember as a kid not just disliking but despising writers. Oh, the mean things they wrote about people I admired and those crazy ideas they espoused, so different from mine.
I never stopped reading them, though, partly out of appreciation for anyone who has a way with words and constructing an argument but mostly because of an early recognition that there’s something to be gained from being exposed to an opinion I disagreed with. Sometimes, I changed my mind based on what I read. More often, it at least gave me another way of looking at an issue or a person and the realization that we don’t all think alike.
That’s why I’m so surprised by how many people today prefer an echo chamber. They put their TV on Fox News or MSNBC and throw away the remote. They restrict their Facebook “friends” to those who share their views. They cancel their newspaper subscriptions because of a column they disliked.
Is the other side of an argument that scary?
We have 10 Opinion columnists and they all bring different life experiences and political views to their work. Way right, way left, middle of the road, it’s hard not to find something to agree with — or at least think about — from their recent writings.
From Tom Zirpoli, “I especially look forward to an America where our vice president is a woman (finally) who has a seat at the table.” Whether you’re a Kamala Harris fan, can you find fault with that? Back to when I was kid, I was frequently told I could grow up to be the president. (I know, underachiever.) My sister and her friends weren’t.
M.K. Sprinkle wrote, “there is no middle ground, no variations of truth; truth stands on its own.” Amen. When I hear someone say “my” truth I want to stick “my” finger down “my” throat.
Bill Kennedy wrote about receiving “bank statements, utility bills, insurance and health care premium notices, credit card statements, and all manner of business correspondence so close to the payment due date that it is impossible to return the required payment by mail on time.” I have no doubt. I sent my cousin in Philadelphia a Christmas card on Dec. 17. She got it Thursday.
Joe Vigliotti wrote that “executive orders are tenuous at best, existing only at the whim of the executive.” Absolutely. Take the so-called “global gag order” that President Biden repealed Thursday. President Reagan put it in place with an executive order in 1984 and President Bush the Elder reauthorized it. President Clinton repealed in 1993 only for President Bush the Younger to reinstate it. President Obama repealed it and President Trump re-reinstated it. That’s seven presidents signing orders, without Congress getting involved. Whether you agree or disagree with the policy, this isn’t how it’s supposed to work.
Frank Batavick noted it would be “unfair to lump our county GOPers in with the Proud Boys, QAnon, and Oath Keepers who surged through the Capitol’s doors.” It would be unfair to lump locals in with those groups, but I do wish more had denounced them.
Rick Blatchford pushed back at those who criticized his criticism of Jill Biden for insisting she be called Dr. Biden: “I find that to be pretentious. ... It’s simply one of my personal quirks.” We all have our quirks. And, anyway, if I received a bachelor of science degree, should I be called BS? Don’t answer that.
From Mitch Edelman, “Elections have consequences. America voted to give Democrats ... a paper-thin majority in the Senate.” Indeed. And Republicans should remember for however long Democrats control the Senate, that instead of concentrating on getting two senators reelected in the traditionally red state of Georgia, they focused on trying to overturn the already decided presidential vote.
Christopher Tomlinson wrote, the “Styrofoam ban that passed in 2019 ... hurt businesses large and small.” Even environmentalists who pushed for it might have to agree.
Tom Gordon wrote, Carroll County Youth Service Bureau clients “have experienced unprecedented stress, isolation, and financial strain due to the COVID pandemic.” Absolutely, as have so many.
An Dean Minnich wrote that those who believe the presidential election was stolen, despite proof to the contrary, “would rather believe the lie than accept the truth, because to accept to the truth requires life-altering self-analysis.” So true. There’s nothing more difficult than taking a good, hard look in the mirror. Are mirrors even allowed in echo chambers?
Bob Blubaugh is the editor of the Carroll County Times. His column appears Sundays. Email him at bob.blubaugh@carrollcountytimes.com.