Have I ever pissed you off? It’s entirely possible—I’m an opinionated little bird.
But what is it about an opinion, just these words printed on paper that can excite anger, loathing, and even hate?
Well, fluttering around newspapers most of my life, I have an extensive data set to pull from. The opinion page is a great place to gauge public discourse, no matter how benign or heated.
Sometimes wars ignite between two letter writers, battling each other week to week, back and forth. Don’t forget—before internet comment sections, people argued in the newspaper. The battle of ideas is always waged with words, and we can learn lots about each other depending on how we use them.
There certainly is a lot to argue about these days. National politics has exploded—people can’t stop talking about President Donald Trump. Those on the left are wringing their hands, while on the right the basic reply is, “He won, get over it.”
But the policies, and how they affect everyone, are what’s up for debate now.
Like the recent sweep by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) in Santa Maria, where ICE officers raided people’s homes to take away nine men. Some of those raids took fathers away from families, but according to ICE, everyone arrested was a criminal of some sort.
Here’s something I notice about the debate surrounding this topic—you can almost tell someone’s side without hearing their argument. Just listen to the words they use. Anyone in support of ICE, Trump, and the raids is quick to call undocumented immigrants “illegals,” while those on the other side will simply say “immigrant,” with no reference to status. I’m speaking in generalities of course, but it’s a notable trend.
Each side needs to take some time to empathize with the other. When folks on the right say “illegals,” those on the left hear a dehumanizing term that suggests someone’s existence is illegitimate. When those on the left try to ignore the criminality of those who enter the country illegally, they hear a lack of regard for law and order.
The debate is also incredibly charged with emotion. Take the recent stabbing of Paulina Ramirez-Diaz in Nipomo, which was followed by the arrest of suspect Julio Cesar Alonso, her boyfriend. ICE recently revealed that Alonso was a previously deported Mexican national.
People who want immigration reform have every right to feel upset, the left needs to understand that. But by the same standard, when the right mobilizes to politicize a crime that hasn’t met the justice system, they can at least refrain from blanketing discourse with epithets, slurs, and hate.
We all have our opinions, but it’s how we engage each other over them that’s important for actually moving a culture forward. There’s a right and wrong way to handle every situation.
The bottom line is: Engage with empathy and accuracy. Get beyond yourself and get your facts straight. And please, for all our sakes, be respectful and make the time to hear the other side out.
The Canary is all about the facts, and send thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 8-15, 2017.