I just finished reading an article entitled Tea Party Republicans in the House Resume Assault on the Environment. The blog article was written by Frances Beinecke of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The article referred to “anti-environmental” policy riders that were attached to the Congressional budget earlier this year, and repeatedly called efforts by Republican law makers to change how the EPA, USDA, and FDA conduct their business “dirty measures.”
I’m not writing to defend those moves made by Republicans, though I’m sure I agree with most of them. I’m writing to ask that both sides clean up their language. In this case, Ms. Beinecke is implying that Republicans are intentionally assaulting the environment. She seems to believe that the Republicans know that what they’re doing will harm the environment more than it will benefit the American people, and instead of stopping themselves they laugh maniacally and continue to club baby seals using baby penguins. More than that, she seems to think that Republicans are trying to harm the environment. And for that, I feel sorry for her. I would hate to live in a world where I believed that people who didn’t agree with me were so loathsome and evil that they were actively trying to pollute the air, wipe out endangered species, and poison the country’s drinking water.
Both sides are guilty of this demonization of the other side. It is far easier to see someone’s disagreement as a character flaw than as an intellectually valid position equal to your own.
No comments:
Post a Comment