media, polarity, politics... and the bottom line
Sitting down to a planning meeting for a man's Human Rights candidacy in the early 70s. Youthful eyes, blue-jeaned idealism focused on the task of absorbing and understanding that for which he stood. "...to change a government you need to tear out the foundation." Seeing a picture of a block tower made just a few years ago and imagining what would happen if I removed the bottom blocks, I instantly knew there was something wrong with that picture. Starry eyed idealism changed to realism. I, at 16, knew more than someone old enough to apply for office. Now, I am old enough to know that polarization in politics tells but a part and not the whole. Leaning much further now to the right than the to the left, I still try to keep an open mind and look at both sides. One morning years ago, I clearly recall hearing up-to-the-minute, straight-from-the-horses-mouth information from Managua during the Sandinista regime. That evening, front page headlines of the Ann Arbor N...