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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 3, 2004 Downtown We gave Rob Asghar a chance to shine, now people are taking notice Scot Bolsinger The idea to approach Rob Asghar about writing for the Ashland Daily Tidings was born when I read a commentary he wrote about racial profiling that was published in the Miami Herald. Something about the clear-headed commentary sparked my interest. His basic tenet was that he - a frequent traveler of Middle-Eastern descent - looks very much like the profile of a would-be terrorist. Yet he had never once been stopped, searched, questioned. Security staff, he said, often seemed to go out of their way to be nice, while old ladies were pulled out of line and searched. His conclusion is what sold me. Asghar said as an American flying the not-so-friendly skies he would feel safer if he was the victim of racial profiling, just a little bit. Asghar is a surprising thinker and writer. He's a conservative who conservatives don't like much. His family is mostly Muslims from Pakistan, but he is an American-born Christian. As a five-year-old he went to Mecca, but as an adult he attends church. Morally he agrees with much that President George W. Bush touts, but he couldn't vote for him in the last election because of many of his not-so moral decisions. "I'm sort of conservative on some stuff, and not so conservative on other stuff," he says. Which often irritates his conservative friends and readers. "It's easier to do the Pep Rally stuff," he says of the Republican party, "but I didn't drink the Kool-Aide." Asghar wonders how a conservative can be supportive of the massive increase in federal government not to mention soaring deficits. What's conservative about that, he asks? Frankly, it's why I find him so refreshing, and likely why his is a name you will begin to hear much more of. Creators Syndicate - home to Roger Simon, Susan Estrich and Molly Ivins to name a few - has just signed Asghar to start in the Spring. While he has been writing his regular commentary just for the readers of the Ashland Daily Tidings, soon he will be read in papers throughout the country. I think conservatives everywhere will benefit, even if they may not always be pleased. Asghar's first attempt at becoming a commentator was several years ago. He wrote one article. He liked it. But one problem remained: "I ran out of ideas. I was done." (I wish many of the more familiar commentators would realize this about themselves, but that's just me). He found his voice after the horrors of 9/11. He realized that having lived in many places across the world -"Growing up in a place like Pakistan where all the terrorists were also growing up" - he had some perspectives that might be helpful to others. America was suddenly living a culture shock, one that he had lived since the time as a boy he first went to American schools. "I can explain what the culture shock is like," he says. "I still think people don't realize that." He hasn't run out of ideas since, delving into many of the hot topics of contemporary culture. He continues to offer a unique and surprising perspective, like recently when he encouraged his fellow Christians to sit this election out. Hardly the stuff that Bush's conservative backers would want to hear from a so-called conservative commentator. The strife that comes from angry readers doesn't bother him at all. "This is fun," he says. "I like writing columns about what I see in the world." Being a commentator in these angry, divided days isn't easy. It's like aspiring to be an umpire, where the only feedback you get is loud boos from the crowd and an umpire spitting sunflower seeds in your face. But Asghar is just such a glutton. Religion, he says, is especially dicey, where passions run hot. "The disagreement is not 'out there' but something I have lived within my own family. The religious stuff is so sensitive. Part of my goal is to say, 'Come on folks, we can talk about this. We don't have to blow each other up'." Obviously, easier said than done, but you still gotta respect the guy for trying. Eds. Note: Due to space limitations Downtown will move from Friday to Thursday in future editions. Andrew Scot Bolsinger is the editor of the Ashland Daily Tidings and author of a novel, "If Pennies Could Talk." 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