Informed Opinions

Recently someone included a rant in an email to me. It happened to be about the current US government. It could have been about anything. We all need to rant occasionally to let off steam, so that’s fine. But we also have to get past our rants enough to think, research and reason before we act.

I get the impression my correspondent doesn’t intend to look any closer. If she did, it would take less than ten minutes to discover the very first “fact” in her rant is fiction. I have documentation in my office that refutes the next “fact” in her rant.

As long as our opinions aren’t going to cause any harm, it’s all right to believe whatever we want. But she will base her votes and her activities on what she believes about people currently in national office. The power to vote is a priceless privilege. Decisions about how to wield it should be well researched and thought through with care.

Once upon a time, I was deeply involved in societal change activism and politics, all the way up to the national level. But even then, when my opinions were most adamant and I was putting as much energy into them as I could, I did not shut out everything else. If the only information I know is from my side of an issue, I don’t know enough.

I subscribed to a magazine specifically because I often disagreed with the articles in it, and reading those articles made me re-examine my own opinions. I got on mailing lists for organizations at the opposite end of the issue spectrum from mine. I attended a few local and county events hosted by those groups, in my own name, and simply listened to what they were saying. I wanted to know what they believed and why, and I didn’t want that information filtered.

Although I’m not active in those circles any more, I never abandoned those habits. They are necessary in my work, and I think they are valuable in the rest of my life too.

Everybody has opinions. I want mine to be informed opinions.