Crossing the Line

Today's chaotic pace and the cacophony of mixed messages, both urgent and convincing, compel listeners / viewers / readers to focus on and analyze a myriad of inputs or block and delete---if only to maintain sanity.

The cries of "Injustice!" coming from left and right are so adamant and unapologetic as to dim the fact that sometimes the fastest way to get East is to go West.

While partisan camps endorse or oppose anything from the Big Box to the War on Terror to the War on the Unborn, many non-partisans are left to assume that all deep-thinking people will only join or vote for a certain party---they just can't agree on which party that is. The issues that divide a thinking populace are overlapping, not mutually exclusive. The information explosion, accompanied by the enhanced theatrics of an outraged advocate encourages complex people to make simple but unsatisfying choices, leaving the investigation of claims and counter-claims to the cadre of one's choice.

But some folks are not content to feast forever on pre-digested pablum but must have the real thing---meat that is savoury, fruits and vegetables that are vine-ripened. They acquire not only tastes but real choices. They are able to distinguish between information and peer pressure to conform.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of modern politics will be found, not in the passage of legislation embraced by the Left or the Right but by the release from bondage of a generation of creative thinkers who are able to stand on their own two feet and speak their minds. The proper and logical conclusion to many debates may be within our grasp if today's voters / editors / politicians give themselves permission to disagree with their high-profile leaders / readers and constituents. Blind allegiance to one's party imperils the ability to see the big picture. If there had ever been one group with no blind spots we would need only one nation, one party, one church, one university, one newspaper today. But diversity of thought, like fresh water flowing into a lake, brings nutrients, oxygen and cleansing for the mind. Think about it.