GIVING THANKS FOR NEWS WITH VIEWS

 

 

 

Tricia Smith Vaughan
October 30, 2005
NewsWithViews.com

A recent column of mine received the usual response from News With Views readers, some positive, some negative—almost all well-written and well-thought-out. One man asked me to clarify a point for him and when I did, he wrote back and said, “I disagree with your premise and conclusion.” I LOVED HIM IMMEDIATELY! How could I, a former English teacher, not love someone who so eloquently disagreed with me. Intelligent people can agree to disagree and the NewsWithViews.com audience is filled with intelligent, thinking people, whether or not they agree with everything written on this site.

The way I became a writer for this wonderful site was by reading it while nursing my infant. Wow! I’d rarely read fabulous, thought-provoking viewpoints such as these in the Los Angeles Times or other mainstream newspapers. And it’s written by people with a Christian viewpoint! Now there’s something you won’t find in mainstream media. Reading this site made me so thankful for freedom of speech that it helped me to make the decision to cancel our weekday subscription to the Times and we are thinking about cancelling the weekend one.

I became even more thankful for the NewsWithViews,com web site, and the things I learn from its writers, after a link to one of my recent articles, without my permission, was placed on the site of a hate-filled group. I describe them with that adjective because I’m not sure exactly what the criteria are for a hate group per se. But I do think that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of love from people who threaten me and my children—yes, my children—and people who call me “moron” with a few choice adjectives before it because they don’t like what I’ve written; these aren’t typical NewsWithViews.com readers.

The reason I mention the people who are still harassing—yes, harassing—me via e-mail and my web site is that I believe these people are products of the pablum of mainstream media. They not only have no idea how to disagree respectfully or argue, but they are threatened by truth. I am probably not the only News With Views writer who has received such e-mail, but I count it as an honor. When we educate people with the truth, people who have been dumbed down via our educational system and mass media will be threatened. Via cognitive dissonance and other mind-capturing techniques, these people have learned neither classical argumentative skills nor the erudite rhetorical moves of our country’s founding fathers; rather, they operate from a guttural, emotional mindset. Unfortunately, it’s the way most of our country operates. And it’s why we need NewsWithViews.com and similar web sites more than ever.

Intelligent people seeking knowledge come to this web site. People who want to be deprogrammed of mass media read here. Christians and those who aren’t, but who respect a Christian viewpoint read this site. And that’s why you won’t see our views in mainstream media. We are a special group; and we’re telling the truth, one writer and reader at a time.

Writing for this web site has been one of the biggest joys of my life so far. I have meet many wonderful people via e-mail, people who care for me enough to give me advice, people I take the time to write back. Receiving the threatening e-mails from non-News With Views readers, however, makes me realize how many ignorant mind-manipulated people there are in our country. Sometimes it seems hopeless when I think of our mass media and its effects, but other times, I know it’s not.

With that same article, I received an e-mail from a mother who thanked me for telling the truth, one from a grandfather-to-be who said my writing had made him ponder his advice to his pregnant daughter, and others from people who thanked me. These are the people I write for, people who are willing to look and to think, people who believe we can change the world, not through governmental intervention, but through speaking the truth.

When I started writing this column, fellow News With Views writer Nancy Levant gave me sage advice: “Be honest, be brave.” And so I try to be. I am very thankful that all NewsWithViews.com writers have this attitude; it is an attitude that one must have when one is brave enough to write the truth. Or when one is brave enough to read the truth.

© 2005 Tricia S. Vaughan - All Rights Reserved