More thoughts on the value of diverse letters
I take issue with one other aspect of Mike McLaughlin’s September 2 letter; one that Roger Wade’s letter the next day also contained. My specific beef: both characterized liberal writers like me as essentially saying, “I have this all figured out; here, let me show you the truth.”
Then, in their response, McLaughlin and Wade, for sure did exactly that.
My overarching point? You cannot have it both ways. That is, neither “side” can logically claim to have a lock on the truth. But that seems to be what you think. The lock is there alright — it’s just that it’s you conservatives that possess it.
My view? Typically, for most cases, even for some moral issues, no position is all right or all wrong. Furthermore, we are all free to cite evidence that either weakens or strengthens support for the arguments of another — that helps clarify the degree to which any claim has merit.
That is what I try to do, myself. If you read my letters, I think you would find that, though I sometimes falter, I typically cite facts where applicable. And that I also identify where I am giving opinion based on those facts. I use words and phrases like, “in my view” and “to me” to make it clear that I consider the following statement to be opinion — not Truth, in that literal sense. I never resort to ad hominem attacks and, for the most part, avoid the pitfall of sarcasm. In my view (there I go again), all of us contributors should strive to do something like that.
So, take my arguments and find flaws in them — I welcome it! If you did I would almost invariably learn something, potentially seeing an issue from some new angle that might not ever occur to me on my own. I do have conservative friends where exactly that happens — and regularly.
But neither you nor Mr. Wade have done that; at least, not so far.
Still, perhaps there are some who would like to go back to the “good ol’ days” when the only person who wrote letters to The Dispatch was Cameron Triplett, coming from the right. Me? I like the way things are now much better, with a diverse array of contributors bringing different sides to the exact issues we need to be talking about. Very much like the approach Bonnie Oppenheimer described in her letter in the Sept. 3 Dispatch. You might want to read that one.
Paul Mack
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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