Thinking, media and the First Amendment

 When I was a young reporter, I wrote about a sweetheart deal in a town in East Texas.

If you were an important person in town, you could go to the garage that the police department ran to maintain its patrol cars and get your oil changed. Depending on your standing, you might get a flat tire fixed. If you were really somebody, you might get a new set of tires.

Some taxpayers were outraged that public money was paying for perks for insiders.

But no one was as mad as the police chief, who said I should be prosecuted. I had accounts of the expenditures, and he wanted me charged with the theft of records from the police station.

He said I was a troublemaker, belonged in jail and did not support our officers in blue. 

The newspaper’s attorney had to go to the city council meeting with me to keep me from being arrested.

I thought I had done something for the public good.

But at the corner store, the woman behind the counter looked up from the National Enquirer, with a story about a flying saucer on the cover, and recognized me. She mangled my oft-mangled name, said I was a troublemaker and belonged in jail. She said I should be ashamed of myself for not supporting our officers in blue.

I learned that given a choice about what to believe, a lot of people will make decisions without bothering to think. They will repeat what they are told. They will swallow propaganda. They will choose unreliable sources of information.

I can’t pretend to be surprised that in this election, many people swallowed the propaganda. I spent my life in Texas, a place that will give anyone a healthy skepticism about politics.

If you are dismayed by the country’s sense of direction, I have a suggestion: Exercise your rights under the First Amendment. Do it responsibly.

It’s important for thinking people to think out loud — in public.

We need people who think seriously about serious things: about vaccinations, climate science and disparities in levels of income.

We also need people who think about things that are fun: baseball, natural history, music, books, art.

Mainly, we just need people who think.

If people who like to think lose heart and go into hiding, we are going to lose what makes this country bearable, despite its faults.

Donald Trump was a horrible president and probably will be worse this time. But I do not think it’s the end of the world.

And I do not believe that the situation will improve if all the people who are capable of thinking for themselves abandon hope and crawl into a hole.

Let’s keep the lights on. Instead of searching social media for sites that terrify you, look for a few that make you think.

This whole line of thought was prompted by a blog — Michael Leddy’s Orange Crate Art. I read it because he makes me think.

• Sources and notes: Orange Crate Art is here: 

https://mleddy.blogspot.com.

I also follow Julian Girdham, an English teacher who puts out a newsletter called The Fortnightly, at https://www.juliangirdham.com/the-fortnightly.

I tend to move around. At times, I’ve read psychologist Paul Bloom’s blog, Small Potatoes, at  

https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net

Recently, I’ve been going through the site of the poet Kim Stafford, which is here:

https://www.kimstaffordpoet.com

Many friends say I’m making a mistake by avoiding other social media. Good thinking — and bad — can occur anywhere. Perhaps it’s my imagination, but I find more of the good stuff on blogs and personal websites.

If you have a site you’d recommend, leave a comment or email me at hebertaylor3@gmail.com. I might follow this up.