> SOUTHERN INDIANA — Each and every week I sit down and type out my opinion of whatever topic I choose and when I am done I type my name and email address at the bottom. I send it in to the News and Tribune office via their email address and they publish it in the Friday edition of the newspaper and post it online. Next to my column there is a picture of what I looked liked three years ago when I started writing this column. All opinions expressed unless noted are mine.  

You are encouraged to enter the discussion whether you agree or disagree with me. You can drop me an email to tell me what you think. There have been a few people that tracked down my phone number and actually called me to discuss my column. Some people actually send me letters in the mail. You can challenge what I have said or continue the discussion in a letter to the editor or the weekly “Cheers and Jeers” but by doing that you must sign your name and phone number so they can verify it is you who said it and it is your opinion.

 Another more common way to enter the discussion is to post a comment as part of the online version of my column. It is an informal process whereas you just type in an email address, make up a name for yourself and tell the world what you think of what I just said. One of the problems with this form of communication is that comments do not post in real time due to the need to be screened by someone on the newspaper staff in order to keep the discussion civil.

Over the last few weeks I have written columns on some of the hot button issues of the day. I started the month of July off by talking about the debate of health care based on the Supreme Court ruling affirming the “Affordable Care Act.” The following week the heat wave and drought that we have been facing led me to discuss climate change. Last week I brought up the idea of gun control following the attacks in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater. I did not set out to talk about these things like this originally, it just fell naturally like this based on things in the news. It has also led to some interesting discussion.

The “Affordable Care Act”  which has been dubbed “Obamacare” was the first real overhaul of our health care system. For years people have claimed the system needed to be fixed yet no one ever did. President Obama won the 2008 election with the understanding that one of the planks in his platform was a plan to fix the broken health care system. I guess it caught some people off guard when he actually did what he said he was going to do.      

When the Supreme Court of the United States deemed the Act constitutional, opponents began to say it was the loss of freedom in the United States of America. My argument was that we had not lost any freedoms. Former half-term governor Sarah Palin’s statement, “Obama lies, freedom dies” was defended by someone using the name “hoosiercommonsense” [not his real name]. Arguing that it would be two years before we would actually lose our freedoms stating “…you and I still don’t  know the extent that we have sacrificed our freedoms at the altar of Obamacare.”

One of the points on my discussion on climate change was that radio commentator Rush Limbaugh dismisses scientific proof and just resorts to name calling. An online poster using the name “WhatChaNeed” [not his real name] pointed out that without climate change Indiana could very well be covered by glaciers. He went on to say, “I’m sure all you libtards would love that.” First I would like to thank you for affirming at least one of my points, secondly I understand that the world’s climate has changed over the last few billion years, but most people are worried about the changes occurring more rapidly than usual.  

I received an email from reader “Al Goer” that stated, “…after reading your opinion in the EN I can tell you’re a Bill Clinton white trash kook.” To which I replied: “You seemed to be an intelligent open-minded individual. It’s readers like you that keep me plugging along.”

Last week I asked if we could now start discussing the need for gun control. Once again reader “WhatChaNeed” chimed in: “The discussion began long ago, where ya been?” While people have been talking about gun control for many years a discussion is a two-way street. When one side mentions background checks, waiting periods or mental health evaluations in order to obtain a gun and the other side only responds by saying, “I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands,” you can’t have much of a discussion.

He or she went on to say that people are going to kill whether they use a knife, a baseball bat or a rock. Yes it is clear that you could cause some damage with things other than an “assault rifle” but the level of casualties would be far less. Also the guy with a knife, bat or rock would have been easier to overpower than someone spraying random bullets through a crowded movie theater.

I write this column from my point of view with the understanding that some people will agree with me and others will say that man is a lunatic. In a country that is split on every major political decision that is made it is hard to agree on anything. I just hope to have some type of intelligent discussion. If everyone agreed with every column I wrote, it would get boring rather quickly.  



Matthew Nash can be reached at dmatthewnash@gmail.com.