http://amarillo.com/opinion/letters-editor/2012-11-01/letter-its-time-columist-gene-lyons-be-caged

The letter to the editor contained in this link reminds me of the battles I fought for years with newspaper readers who imply they don’t want to read opinions that disagree with their own.

I remember getting a letter from a gentleman in Perryton. He just couldn’t stomach reading “liberal” commentary on the page I edited. He only wanted to read conservative views, espousing – much as the gentleman in the link attached to this blog post has done – the view that this is a conservative region and thus, the newspaper should cater to the region’s prevailing political viewpoint.

What the Perryton resident didn’t quite get is that the world contains a wide-range of opinions, bias, philosophy and perspectives. The intent of a newspaper opinion page should be to present as wide a range of views as possible. Why not expose conservatives to liberal points of view or liberals to conservative points of view?

No one’s mind is going to change. Offering a varied smorgasbord of ideas, though, does provide validation – if nothing else – to whatever view the reader already holds.

I have lost count of the times I’ve heard from individuals complaining about having to read viewpoints that run counter to their own view.

The best news of all to those folks, though, is that no one forces them to read anything.

I rather prefer to read differing ideas. Doing so can cause me to hyperventilate and that’s good for the heart. It might be good for the soul, too.