I know I have a tenuous grip on current events. I don't listen to the radio. I don't own a television. What I know comes from The Washington Post, the BBC, and People Magazine.
So have you all heard about the fracas in Golden, CO?
Apparently three rival biker gangs have declared a truce in order to protest one collective opponent: The Qatar based newspaper Al-Jazeera.
These things are too complex for me to choose sides. Fine, there is some evidence, or at least suspicion, that Al-Jazeera has terrorist ties. But also the bikers are showing a side of Americans that makes me uneasy - especially when the world is watching so closely. I am not them. I don't even know them. And I suspect that they do not have any interest in knowing me.
But maybe this is a dialogue that needs to happen. We expect that the world will welcome us and our journalists with open arms - even when we are in the process of pillaging their country - but we don't want their journalists here.
Again, I don't want to have to dwell on these things, but if we don't at least take a moment to pause - then we are doing ourselves and the rest of the world a disservice.
Like the last line of the article linked above describes: They only support the First Amendment for people who see things their way." Martinez said something else, but a protester's air horn drowned out the words.
We cannot truly find synthesis, unless we are open to both sides.
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