Civil discourse

To the editor:

I have just finished reading a book by Craig Miner entitled “Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858.” For four years Kansas Territory was at the center of the national debate about whether it would become a free or slave state and the run-up to the Civil War.

A brief quote caught my eye and captured my usual reaction to the Saturday Column in the Journal-World, and its influence on contemporary debates in Lawrence and Kansas. I wanted to share that quote from Miner’s book: “The truth is, Human Nature is apt to be intolerant, and Human Nature has a good deal to do with the issues of the Press. … Men who are engaged in a struggle for a great object ought to be a little forbearing towards each other — watch over each other for good — tolerate opinions not at war with the idea that combines them for a single purpose — beware of exalting every point of difference into a question of overshadowing importance, raising issues calculated to divide and embarrass.”

Having and expressing opinion is not the issue. It is that last phrase, regarding calculated intention, that is my concern. Ideology feeds divisiveness, which impairs civil discourse.