Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > January > 01
Monday, January 1, 2007
Found on the blog in 2006
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Happy New Year!
Congratulations to RW (the original). You got in the last word of 2006. If it is permitted to use the first day of the new year to speak of the year past, I’d wish to thank all who participated in Thinking Right’s first calendar year. I have come to admire greatly the intellect and debating skills of many of you. And I admit too that I have developed an affection for some contributors I’ve never met.
I started the blog intrigued by the possibilities of productively addressing issues by assembling people who could speak honestly with virtually no censorship. The result is sometimes a little rough and occasionally over the line. But I’ve been enormously impressed with, and bouyed by, your efforts to set limits and to achieve equilibrium. There are good folks here, fair-minded and forgiving. For that, I thank you.
As jbmlaw has pointed out to newcomers who are a bit put off by the in-your-face turn a blog sometimes takes, on most every day the discussion has two tracks, one serious and substantive and one, often substantative but combative. As he points out, too, some contributors are quite accomplished at — and sometimes entertaining in — aggressively or humorously making their points. To be honest, some of it is tough for me to take sometimes, especially posts that suggest a willingness to see harm come to this nation, our leaders or to the men and women who defend us. Every temptation is to exclude those voices. But if those views are out there, we should know. So tempted as I am, I’ve resisted most urges. Conservataives sometimes think our views are discounted because we failed the test of political correctness or because the media gate-keepers deemed them as expressed to be unworthy of a place in public policy debates. With that in mind, I have intentionally avoided most inclination to exclude opinion, even when it offends me. The truth is, though, that I am human and have limits and have delighted in seeing the tail lights on some departing posters.
I end the year, or start the year, far more optimistic about the possibilities. I find myself, too, invested in the lives of people I don’t know, of people like Jeff, the Southwest Georgia math teacher, who started innocently and optimistically last June on a journey of conscience to make the world a better place by improving the ability of chiildren in one disadvantaged corner or the world to compete. As with most undertakings, it has been much more difficult than imagined, he tells us in December. But for the blog, I would never have known his mind, his heart or his story. I am, thus, the beneficiary of the lives you open.
After more than 40 years around newspapers, this has been a new experience for me — but a good one. Thank you all for letting me be a part of your lives and thoughts in 2006. And now to the new year: What would you like to see here in 2007? Here being the blog. Here being the state, region or the country.
