ENID —



The Militant Moderate, otherwise known as Dr. Ed Vineyard Sr., has decided to stop writing his blog for our website.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Vineyard for writing his blog for the past several years.

My personal blog often involves politics, and I take primarily a conservative viewpoint. Dr. Vineyard’s column was designed to offer a viewpoint on the more liberal side of politics, and he appealed to a lot of our readers. However, he was uncomfortable with the format the new website offers of providing reader comment on our blogs.

Dr. Vineyard has a vast experience in academics and education, and he is the retired president of  Northern Oklahoma College. Through the years he has worked with many state and national leaders on issues involving education. While he and I disagreed on many things, we could usually disagree without being disagreeable.

I consider Dr. Vineyard a valued friend and colleague and wish him all the best.

I think we can all agree there is strong polarization when it comes to political and economic views. The Internet has provided more opportunity for more voices to be heard. Some are disturbed by this trend -- and I have to admit I think the discourse has gotten very personal and very vindictive in many respects.

We need more constructive discourse in our national conversation. Instead of seeing people with differing viewpoints as our “enemies,” we need to be able to debate the issues and consider other viewpoints without inciting hurtful language or demonizing those who have opposing views. And when someone opposes our viewpoints, we should try to find constructiveness in those criticisms.

This is very hard for passionate people to do. Believe me, I can be as passionate as anyone. And I can get very angry when I hear or see something that I so strongly oppose.

Yet, I believe there is much more middle ground than is being reflected in a lot of published and publicized commentary today. We are seeing more of the extreme side of views rather than what I would consider the consensus or common-sense views of the majority of people in our nation.

Therefore, I am renewing my goal of writing this blog as focusing on common-sense approaches to issues. I will still uphold what I consider conservative values when it comes to issues of the economy, integrity and politics. But, I know from personal experience than when you really get into a conversation with someone who you think opposes you strongly, you will start to find the middle ground -- the place where people can agree to work together.

In the meantime, if there is a reader out there who thinks he or she can provide us a regular blog that examines the liberal side of politics, shoot me an e-mail. I’ll be looking for someone with local ties who can write concisely and make their points concisely. I also need someone who can provide a blog at least weekly.

There isn’t any pay, just the glamour of having an opportunity produce a blog that can reach 8,000 to 10,000 unique visitors on a daily basis.

E-mail me at editor@enidnews.com.