The Right to Vote

Last week I attended the regular monthly meeting of the Democratic Club of Bandera County.

We had the pleasure of taking part in a discussion of the latest voting law changes, conducted by the Republican election official for the county. It was a pleasure because the official presented the new changes in a professional, efficient manner, pausing when needed for questions and clarification. Although there was the expected comments with political overtones expressed, the official carefully kept on task and explained what she was capable of commenting on as a professional elections judge for the county and deferred any opinion on politics.

It occurred to me as I sat there that this was how real information is disseminated and how much information could be obtained about real situations when there are no hidden agendas and the persons taking part in the discussions were sincere in wanting facts and data from a person who actually had those facts and data and was presenting them in an intelligent and honest manner. This was an experience I think this gifted professional provided. We all benefited.

Second thought, an opinion, I would like to reference this newspaper, the editor, the column writers and the public who pen letters to the editor. Several weeks ago, a Democratic column caused a storm of controversy. The subject was abortion, and that subject always ignites emotions. This isn’t an opinion on that subject, although I thought the column well written, and had sources to check the facts at the end. This is a comment about whether it was proper to run the column in the first place. To clarify the whole process some basic rules, need to be explained.

First, these columns are known in journalism as oped columns, which is short for opinion editorials. That’s why they appear in the same spot every week, signed by the writers. So every week, each writer submits an OPINION column. Some of the columns are intelligent and well researched. Others, not so much. However, the reader gets to decide if the writer has made the case. When the editor of the paper offered this opportunity to writers, this was understood. Each political party and its representative writers understood and agreed to this chance to advocate opinions. If those opinions were backed by facts, all the better.

The editor of this paper has stood by his agreement with the contributors to these opinion pages. However, some citizens believe that only the views and beliefs of their way of thinking is acceptable in a community paper. I started this column talking about how professionalism and civility serve to inform us and serve us in making decisions. I think this paper’s professional fairness policy serves us all. If you don’t agree with the writers, readers have every right to comment and even write a column if governed by the policy of the paper. But to suggest that a subject or a writer be banned because you personally disagree smacks of censorship.

Intelligent decision making comes from the debate of ideas. Let’s keep it that way. We can all agree to disagree, but let’s keep the discourse of ideas on a level playing field. We all benefit from that.

Gary Moore, Bandera County resident, is a Texas State University graduate, former English and football coach, journalist, script writer and photographer.