So, I find myself, on a daily basis surrounded by people almost as far to the right as Jerry Falwell, it’s tough. Take my work place for instance, the way they do hiring here is everyone gets to read your resume, they can form questions and give them to the interviewer, so they have seen what I have done and where I have worked. Because of my employment choices in the past, EVERYONE here knows my political affiliation. They take great pleasure in making extreme comments regarding right wing political philosophy, just to try and set me off. I usually manage to ignore them, usually.
Recently, they decided to attack “Sore-Loser Gore” (their words not mine) about his views on everything from global warming (its a “farse”) to how Vice-President Gore “invented the internet.” That comment was 7 years ago this year, and it was a comment completely taken out of context. It just really irks me that they HAVE NOT LET IT GO.
So my question to you, because I work with them, and because I do like some of them, how do I speak with them? How do you respond to people who make flagrant comments just because they know what you believe. Or in the case of Spokane, just make flagrant comments because no matter what, they are right and you are wrong. I think the only way Spokane will truly improve is if people can be educated that there are other viewpoints out there, and hell some of them may even be right! (Imagine that) But Spokane residents have been so poisoned by the various media groups here that it is almost impossible to inject an alternative viewpoint.
The Inlander has tried for years to provide an alternative voice to Spokane and has been doing reasonably well, yet even that small publication is still subject to attack by larger agenda possessing “new entities” like the Spokesman Review. In the last year they have begun publishing a small free paper called “The Spokane Seven” which sets itself out to be an alternative paper, but in reality it is an extension of the Cowles Corporation, pushing for its own needs over that of the people of Spokane.
It’s getting tiresome, and it needs to change. Any takers?