I enjoy reading the letters to the editor section of The Daily Herald as much for their entertainment value as to inform myself of what might be on the minds of locals and their reaction to the news.
Occasionally, I gain a new perspective. I’m a lifetime learner and I love taking in different ideas to shape my own. It’s an important part of any local newspaper and I’m grateful The Daily Herald dedicates so much space to it.
The most entertaining exchanges are the emotional letters trashing Fox News from the left, countered by those suspicious of the liberal mainstream media from the right.
Someone at some point will have to remind those folks that CNN and Fox News are only two clicks from each other on the remote.
If you don’t like one or the other, you just push a button. No need to get all huffy about it.
What the letters section also does is remind us that we all have different life experiences.
Those shape what we’re passionate about, what we might be uniquely informed about and what we care about. These experiences have the potential to be used to serve each other in a constructive way.
Somewhere in the past 30 or so years, though, we shifted to a mean-spirited dialogue where if I have an opinion I must be right and you must be, by definition, an idiot.
I’ve attempted to use this column to inform, not persuade. To bring my experiences in business and real estate over nearly three decades to a forum where you can tap in, learn a little, maybe smile, and move on.
No more, no less.
Readers will often stop me in a grocery store or email me with something that they are passionate about and I will learn from them.
Everyone wins. We’re connected and we use each other’s life experiences to come together, not separate.
I’ll keep reading the letters to the editor section, though, devouring news and ideas from every source. I don’t watch much TV, but when I do I’ll keep bouncing between CNN and Fox News.
When out in the community, I’ll continue to engage with the 1-percenters, people I meet in the aisles at Walmart and everyone in between.
Every day I learn something new through respecting everyone I come in contact with and engaging.
No labels. Just an amazing mosaic of human beings whose circles overlap and we get a chance, when they do, to enrich each other’s circles a bit even if just with a smile.
Perhaps I’m naive, but I dream of a better community where one day I will read the letters to the editor section and notice a shift.
A passionate but respectful dialogue intended to be constructive. Until then, I’ll keep reading the letters for the sheer entertainment value and to remind myself, I guess, of what an idiot I must be.
Tom Hoban is CEO of The Coast Group of Companies. Contact him at 425-339-3638 or tomhoban@coastmgt.com or visit www.coastmgt.com. Twitter: @Tom_P_Hoban.
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