Obviously, those who regularly read the Opinion page of The Daily Iberian, already know that myself and Ken Harty are in total agreement regarding Opinion pages. His advocacy of people taking the opportunity to express themselves was clearly stated in the April 20 edition to the right of an opinion piece of my own,

‘The Freedom of the Press’ is actually one of the cornerstones of what has made America a better place to live than many, if not most, of the other countries on the Earth. If one does not see the fundamental differences between our way of governing ourselves and those that the leaders of communist countries enforce, the way they control opposing opinions, then one must have not paid full attention in their Civics classes?

For example, this very week Vlad Putin’s country held their sham election after successfully squashing any serious opposing opinions. And let us remember what happened to someone who did oppose him a little too much…Alexei Navalny.

We all know that to build a strong building you require a firm foundation and the same goes for building a great country. We often think of our Constitution as the ‘Foundation of our Republic’, and we recite our Pledge of Allegiance’ which concludes with “…and with Liberty and Justice for all.”

Liberty’s definitions include the right to be free from restrictions and control of legal actions of what we think and do and say. FDR put the Freedom of Speech as number one of his Four Freedoms. I personally take advantage of ‘speaking my mind’ thru participation in the Opinion page.

And I also read the opinions of others that are expressed there. Their viewpoint quite often don’t align with mine and I find myself trying to see their point of view. I sometimes modify my own point of view because I was exposed to theirs, rarely, but sometimes it does happen. Softening a hard held opinion is probably a good thing, once in a while.

I think that this kind of exchange of thought is the reason that Ken and I agree on the important role of the Opinion page.

If you got this far, thanks for at least reading my opinions regarding my take on the role of the Opinion page. I trust Ken agrees with me.

Richard Phillips

New Iberia