Valued Input

We get feedback all the time here at the radio station and for the most part it is helpful and appreciated. But then there are folks who are ticked off at one of these commentaries and find it necessary to question my grasp of the job of commentator.

There was an interesting generational chasm in the responses logged when I said Cardinal pitcher Jack Flaherty shouldn’t take a knee during the national anthem. That was simple enough…but it created consternation.

I was called closed minded, ignorant….that I need to shut up, sit down and manage the radio station…..that my opinions were “useless.”

Well if they are so useless, why did 70 people take time out to comment….?

None who disagreed countered with a reason for taking a knee. Inside the station one broadcaster took issue with my thinking. In his view, soldiers hit the beaches at Normandy to defend the right we have in America to speak our minds. It is an expression of free speech only tolerated in a society governed by the words within our first amendment.

Hmm. I didn’t agree with him but it was a reasoned, well thought through opinion to counter my belief that the flag is a sacred symbol of our country and needs to be treated with reverence.

Do you see the difference? One person with an opinion-----me----and one person with a counter opinion----my co-worker. He didn’t call me a name. He was bright enough to understand a commentary is not a news story….it is purposefully stilted. He refrained from insult.

In the end, Flaherty did not kneel. And for that I’m grateful.

I’m even more grateful that he pitched a winner.