Unbiased bias

Those that write under the confines of the term journalist have a heavy burden of keeping bias from the work that they do. When writing of events and news they must not only hunt down facts but also provide context for the story within the community without regard for personal opinion. Such a standard is daunting and those that attempt to carry it should be commended. The opinion column thankfully doesn’t have to share this burden. I try to see the world as honestly as I can, without prejudice to my own background or perspective. The hope is that my ideas about the world will reflect the world as it is, not as I wish it would be. How much of my worldview is based on clear analysis of the facts as they are presented? Am I liberal because I see those virtues reflected in the facts? Am I liberal because my history precludes me from seeing the wisdom of conservative thought? The truth is I can’t answer these questions with any certainty. I take comfort in the fact that no one else can either.
Who do we trust to tell us the color of our eyes? Without a mirror we may never be certain of the truth. Conservatives will never give up their hard won and time honored views because I make a valid point or two within the sentences of these essays. Shouting figures on Fox News will never sway me to be more like them. What value does any of this opinion writing have then? When Rush Limbaugh picks and chooses quotes of “liberal” political leaders in order to make them look stupid or criminally unpatriotic he’s not trying to sell his listeners something he knows is blatantly false. He is trying to illustrate a concept he believes with all his heart to be real. Who isn’t guilty of the same excesses from time to time? I must be guilty, if only because conservatives can’t be wrong as consistently as I give them credit for. No matter how hard I try to be objective and open to the facts as they are I lean left 75, no make that 80, percent of the time. Understanding my own prejudices help me to understand and accept the prejudices of others. Rush Limbaugh is not my enemy. The ideas Rush expounds on the radio each day are reflections of political and ideological heritage passed to him by his father or mother and perhaps their parents before them. The mind of even the most cleaver of people is both rational and emotional. The rational mind is great for gathering information but too often we leave it to the emotional mind to give the information context. It’s only through practice and patience can we see the center from which our perspective is drawn. I am proud of my liberal background and of my liberal ideals. It should be no surprise to me that those of my neighbors that lean to the conservative are just and proud and certain of the rightness of their worldview. With this in mind I would ask you to read these columns as a window into a perspective perhaps different than your own. Then we, conservative and liberal, can come together and discover what we have to share in common goals and ideas. Whether it is my own or Rush Limbaugh’s we have the opportunity to throw ideas against one another to see what passions and actions it stirs. By this process we get to know one another. By this progress, real truth, unrecognized often by any political view can bubble up to the surface. Truth discovered through discourse can lead to real solutions. The hope is that conservatives, liberals and otherwise, will continue to move down the road of sifting through not only the information but also the inheritance of differing perspectives we all share.