welsch@houxu.UUCP (11/19/83)
The recent debates on the net have lead me to think about liberals and conservatives. I consider myself to be a liberal and I believe most people who consider themselves liberals would agree. I then asked myself what does that mean, so I looked up liberal in the dictionary and looked through the definitions till I found one that fit. "liberal n: one who is liberal: as a: one who is open-minded or not strict in the observance of orthodox, traditional or established forms or ways..." I then looked up conservative and again looked through the definitions till I found one that fit. "conservative n ... 2 a: one who adheres to traditional methods or views ..." Now lets take a look at Grenada with these two definitions in mind. The conservatives on the net adhere to the story presented by the government and very little else is considered by them as factual. The liberals are willing to consider other stories presented by reputable sources, such as the NYT, the CSM, or a person who visited Grenada before the invasion. Lets take a look at news sources. As soon as a reporter collects information that is contradictory to the "official information" that reporter is considered "liberal." The same goes for a newspaper or a television network. In short almost anything that contradicts, be it factual or not, what a conservative thinks becomes liberal. Worse than that any solution to a problem which is different than an accepted solution becomes liberal. People who consider themselves conservatives should always be asking the question, "Is what I believe true or do I believe it just because its traditional for me to believe it?" While liberals should ask themselves the question, "Is what I believe true just because it is unorthodox, or is there evidence to support the belief?" I believe liberals already question themselves, the trick is to get conservatives to question themselves. Larry Welsch houxu!welsch