Life Of Jason

I’ve read columns in the News-Leader for a while and have enjoyed the give and take of the “From the Right” & “From The Left” columns.  I have to admit I’ve agreed a lot more with the “From The Right” column but I agree a lot with Mr. Roger Ray’s positions in “From The Left” about our taking care of the poor and needy in our community.  However, I saw something in his most recent column that seemed to jump off the page and put into sharp relief the issues that seem to cause divisions in rational discussion.  I have to give Mr. Ray credit for apparently not pulling punches about his biases and opinions but being open about those biases are going to take people who are on the opposite side of the spectrum away from the table.

As I was reading his most recent column, he made this statement: “That is not to diminish the fundamental importance of, say, a woman’s right to govern her own reproductive life, or a gay person’s right to, well, just be. Civil rights, justice, mercy, compassion are all extremely important and the debate must continue with those who would continue to raise the walls of prejudice and discrimination…”  What does that say to someone who, for example, believes the Bible clearly says homosexuality is a sin?  It says to them that Roger Ray believes you’re an advocate of prejudice and discrimination.   That doesn’t necessarily put someone in a mood to have civil discussion with him because they’ll feel that from the very beginning they’re going to be written off as a bigot or racist or worse.

Now, I don’t know Roger Ray.  Is it fair to say that he feels that way about someone who disagrees with his points of view on things like abortion and gay marriage?  I would say no because I haven’t had a face to face conversation to say for sure and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I’m sure he is a supporter of those two topics but does he go as far as to label people because they disagree with him?   I can’t say that.  However, in the world of political discourse that is becoming more and more limited to words in a newspaper or pixels on a screen you can’t see the nuance behind someone’s words.  Perhaps Mr. Ray is just speaking of those who are on the far extreme right that really do fall under the heading of bigot or racist or worse.  I would say that is most likely the case.  Still, when you have nothing to base your opinion of his words on beyond a newspaper column there’s no way to know for sure.

It was then I began to think about how polarized everything has become in politics and political discourse that we automatically have to ask ourselves if this person is on the extreme left or right.   Someone who is a conservative by nature…even if they’re not on the far right…will look at Mr. Ray’s comments and immediately write him off as far-left wing because of that one statement from his entire column.  People will see one little statement and immediately think the worst about someone and their views.  I’m sure someone is reading this blog (if they didn’t stop already) and are ready to slam me in the comments for an attack on Roger Ray.   It won’t matter at all that I said it’s likely he’s not on the far left in his views.  They’ll just see me taking him to task and launch right back most likely by insulting me and claiming I’m a mouthpiece for the far right.   I’m sure references to Bush and Rove and Cheney will get thrown into the mix.  The actual issue…the level of discourse and how it’s polarized us to the point we question if someone’s extreme based on little passages of their whole views…will be lost in a sea of partisan rhetoric.

Can we progress back to a place where we have a simple level of respect for each other in political discourse?  I think it’s very possible but it’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of forgiveness by those not on the far extremes.  Roger himself talked about learning how it’s more important to get along with people with whom you disagree.  He defines it as cooperation and in some cases that word would actually apply to the situation.   It just makes me wonder how much better we could make our community if we could find ways to increase cooperation AND the level of political discourse.