Ordinary Maine

I cannot for the life of me imagine the reaction of our Founding Fathers to today's world. While I am just as guilty as the next person, I am always amazed at how easy it is for people to tune out. Take a walk down any street in the United States and you will walk by multiple people all wearing headphones, listening to music, texting, emailing or just plain surfing the world wide web. Of course this is all on a cell phone.

In today's high tech world, people have greater access to all kinds of information used daily to make decisions. We can have as much or as little information as we want; it is there for the taking. Of course, buyer beware, just because the information is available does not make it accurate, which requires all users of the information super highway to carefully weigh the veracity of this great resource.

The most amazing thing about our high tech world is the ability to completely shut out the sounds of dissent. That is an awesome power. In a society that was founded upon the free and open exchange of ideas, we are now able to choose and create customized news filters that give news the way we want to hear it. We are able to choose media from television to radio to websites that tell us what we want to hear. With the ability to so totally and completely customize the information we digest on a daily basis, is it any wonder our public square is completely broken?

What we all need to do is step back and take a good look around the world. For my part, I am not advocating the elimination or regulation of competing technologies and information sources. What I am suggesting is that every once in a while it might be beneficial to listen to views that are different from our own. Even if you disagree with what is being said, what harm could possibly fall upon someone for hearing (read listening) to both sides of an argument. Now many who know me well will instantly say that my entire rant is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but there is a difference between listening to an opposing point of view and changing one's position based on the merits of that exercise.

One thing is certain as we press into an ever more dangerous era here in the United States, where the mere hint of disagreement with some ideas is enough to get one branded as a racist. In the recent past, dissent was a patriotic duty, now it is a hate crime. That is just an amazing juxtaposition that I am unsure our Founding Fathers could ever fathom. How about you? Until then I will see you out on the streets. I will be the guy doing all the above with my blackberry.

Tony Bessey