Clear and Present Danger

Who is to say what is a clear danger, an impending catastrophe? Who has the authority to make the statement, a warning to others? Who makes this judgment that conditions have become present enough to suggest…indeed, make apparent…that doom is about to land on us? That something needs to be done to protect men, women and children…and property? 

A quick glance at selected press releases might alarm you; and me. They are designed to alarm. Scanning blogs, Internet, even Facebook, alarms are posted just about everywhere. Who are these authors? Is this public opinion? Is this public service? Is this a sanctioned activity? Or is this the open market of ideas? Reader beware; caveat emptor; let the buyer beware!

Probably the latter. So they have no authority, just the weight of frequency and consistence of message. Does this make the alarms real? Are we to take action to avoid danger? If not now, when? Who do we trust?

Most of the messages I think are attempts to control public thinking. Why the public falls prey to these I have no comprehension. But they do pose a problem. They serve as a distraction from considering what really matters and doing something about that! So what to do? 

Readers of this blog are familiar with my passion to be positive and constructive. We have so many blessings to build on it stuns me that so many people choose to act negatively, tear down, frown, spit angry epithets, and tromp on the feelings and ideas of others. Even achievers are belittled. Education is targeted for attacks. What is red suddenly becomes black. Up is down, and down is up!

Who are these people? Why do they act this way?  I think I have an inkling as to the answer: Could they feel powerless? Do they feel the rug pulled out from under their feet? Are they frightened? So scared they have become disoriented?

Perhaps we should reach out to them? And do what?

Let me share something that I encountered in the last two weeks. While preparing for our next newspaper edition (www.villagechronicles.net) every other week, 8 pages, I received a letter to the editor. It was a vitriolic condemnation of Obama as the worst president in the history of the US. It literally stated that all the negatives that have occurred during his presidency are his fault and he hasn’t done anything about them, hence his conclusion.

I refused to print his letter in the paper. It violated three tenets of our letter policy: too long, abusive of a person, and uncivil.

I did offer to print the letter unabridged on our website in a new section entitled Rants ‘N Raves, specifically created for his letter, and surely the ones that will follow. We only ask that the letters not be offensive. We haven’t created the website section yet, but hope to in the coming week.

The letter writer appreciated my candor but disagreed with my conclusion that his letter was uncivil; he countered it was based on facts. It wasn’t. But I don’t wish to be the arbiter of such distractions. So we will print it, just not in the already too short-of-space printed editions of our newspaper.

The larger question I’m dealing with is this: do we print every person’s opinion regardless of their truth?

Of course if we printed everything the readers would dismiss the items which are patently untrue or stupid, or so we hope! On the other hand readers would have to wade through all the nonsense before finding the nuggets of intelligence. Do we help them with that task, or are we rearranging the playing field against one position in favor of another?

I have noticed that publications receiving a good volume of letters eventually receive fewer and fewer reasoned letters. The lowest common denominator is encouraged to speak up and does! But simply selecting which letters I think should be printed places me in the position of becoming a manipulator. I don’t want the role. I do believe in the free marketplace of ideas. I just despise the junk that is meaningless but takes up space and distracts attention from worthy topics. Oh well; this is an age-old question not easily answered.

If I cut off letters I don’t like I’m as bad as those I disagree with. I won’t fall into that trap. Besides, who is to know if the clear and present danger isn’t us in the first place?

Any advice you care to share?

March 2, 2012