Know the Other Side

Richard Branton is a very close friend.  His father, Wiley Branton, was co-counsel in the Little Rock School desegregation case, a leader in the civil rights movement, dean of the Howard University Law School and prominent D.C. attorney.  

Richard has shared many wonderful stories of his father.  One of my favorites is the story of the many newspapers his father would regularly read to keep up on the issues of the day.  Prominent among those papers, in fact often the first one he’d read, was the newsletter of the Ku Klux Klan.  When Richard asked his father why he would subscribe to the newsletter of that despicable organization, Wiley replied:  “We know what’s going on in our movement, but it’s important to know what the other side is saying, so we can develop strategies to counter them.”

A good point.  But, perhaps, you are like me and have a lot of difficulty sitting through even a few minutes of cable network “news.”  How can we learn about, and have an appreciation of, the positions of folks who hold different beliefs than we do, without enduring the drama of cable news?

There are some blogs that can fill the bill.  I haven’t done an exhaustive survey, but I have found a couple of sites that fill the bill for me.  For my conservative friends, I recommend the Moyers & Company blog (http://billmoyers.com/stories/).  For my liberal friends, check out the Powerline Blog (http://www.powerlineblog.com/).

I can pretty much guarantee that neither site will result in changing your political outlook.  However, they will allow you to check out opposing views without feeling like you need to take a shower after.