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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels August 27, 2004 Downtown Like a milk bucket under a bull Andrew Scot Bolsinger I recall as a kid my father telling me that two topics best avoided are religion and politics. People are too entrenched, he said, and the issues are dear to their heart. To criticize these two issues, is to in some way, criticize them personally. I considered this like much of my father's advice: something to be thrown around, stepped on, tested and often enough, discarded. I became a preacher and talked about religion every day. Then I became a political reporter and threw politics in the mix. I was a liberal in a conservative town, a northerner in a southern town, a conservative in a liberal town and a moderate in a place where moderates is another word for lukewarm, akin to Revelation 3. In short, I have spent a lifetime like a milk bucket under a bull. When it comes to thoughts and debate and rhetoric, I have discovered that I am more interested in poking a stick into the eye of the rattlesnake just to see what the snake will do, than I am into making friends with the reptile. I can relate to the Crocodile Hunter as he approaches a nasty gator and says, "OOH, look at those teeth, aren't they sharp. Well watch this, he hates it when I do this ..." But, at least for the foreseeable future, I am taking a hiatus. I think after 20 years people are much to wound up. Perhaps my father's advice wasn't all that bad. The Problem Is Answers. We have too many answers. What's worse is that we are more determined than ever to force our answers on every one else around us. We want Vanilla, not Neapolitan, and if you like chocolate, well, you deserve all the scorn you get. Because Vanilla, is the answer. Period. As a whole, we are much too sure of the answers to listen and wonder anymore. In today's Oregonian, a story about twenty-something voters sheds some light on this. The story's basic tenet is that young, undecided voters who are finally checking into their political obligation to vote responsibly, are turned off by much of the debate. Just as young voters tuned out during the well-worn "lock box" debate of 2000, they are again saying loud and clear they don't care who did what in some jungle, or some ROTC unit for that matter, before they were born. They are looking for someone who is talking about their present. Their immediate present. And of course, nobody is doing that, because simply put, young voters don't vote. They don't matter. Nobody really wants to court them, because their voting turnout is wickedly low, and when they do vote, they vote overwhelmingly like their parents. So, the logic is simple. Appeal to the parent and get a few fallout young voters. Of course, this is a travesty. At precisely the time that young adults should be allowed to know nothing, explore everything and find new, creative possibilities for old debates, we are far too often screaming at them with all the answers we are sure we already know. Religion, politics, life. These aren't things to be pondered, these are the things to step in line, follow along to fit in to the right crowd - albeit a Sunday School class or a drum circle - and carry on the mantra. Learning isn't in vogue anymore. Knowing is. Belonging. Having a label: Conservative. Liberal. Yuppie. Hippie. Christian. Atheist ... ugh. Wondering I have always been better as a wonderer, than a knower. As a preacher I was decidedly disinterested in converting anyone. As a reporter, I was effective simply because of my disinterest in taking sides. Over time I became passionately opinionated about not having opinions. It released the power of wonder in my life. Wondering, brings observations, which brings reflection, which sometimes, if I am very interested, may even bring a new solution, result or idea. True believers on either side can agree on one thing: People like me make them sick. They see our lack of opinion as a lack of commitment, or a lack of passion, or even a lack of intelligence. But perhaps they miss the point. The wondering is exactly where the fun stuff begins: Thinking something new again. I read a book once about Native American history called something like, "We need to dream all this again." The title alone has become a mantra. Dream it again. And again. Each new day brings a new possibility. A new creative solution. The process is often far more interesting than the result anyway. If any religion or political party, or any group for that matter, is going to sway a guy like me, it's going to be the one that truly does value diversity of thought, creative exploration and most of all, the right to belong despite a healthy disagreement. Every group that I have seen based on ideas ends up being powerfully divided by those that believe and are in, and those that don't and are out. Interestingly, it was Jesus of Nazareth who said, "I am the way, the truth and the light." From my reading he was supremely confident that anyone seeking simply truth, not answers, would eventually find him. But unfortunately, whether it be politics or religion, all around us, especially in these divided days of '04, most seem convinced they have the truth about everything, which takes all the fun out of seeking. If I have one fervent wish for this election, it is that disconnected voters will reconnect again, or connect for the very first time. That in a race that there are few bounces because of both sides being so firmly entrenched in their own truths, the few undecideds will grab destiny by the throat and choke out a winner themselves. Any small group of new determined voters can turn this entire election. If college students could really catch on, they, more than anyone else could decide who will be the next president of the United States. Wouldn't that be cool, if they did, and in so doing they forced the candidates to talk to them, not at them, and even more importantly to listen to what they need to succeed in life in the coming decade. Wouldn't it be refreshing to see a candidate, not with all the answers, but with a sheer drive to dream it all again? If the rest of us would only be less sure, those that aren't just might find the time and the interest to become more so. Andrew Scot Bolsinger is the Daily Tidings editor and author of a novel, "If Pennies Could Talk." contact him at: [email protected] DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams