This Quick-Hit Column Ends On Discordant Note

Off the News is about to change its tune.

For the past year this space has been devoted on Tuesdays and Thursdays to what I call bite-size commentary - two or three quick swipes at issues in the news.

It’s great fun, sitting back and tossing off opinions about anything that sparks an interest. But the fun is incomplete, like shadow boxing, or singing in the shower, or hitting fly balls with nobody around to shag them.

Where’s the feedback, the dialogue?

Something is missing and the something is the fuller, more thoughtful outlook that comes with exposure to competing outlooks.

Starting next week, however, the solo is over. It’s the choir’s turn to join in.

Each Tuesday’s installment will raise issues, as in the past. But it also will invite you to phone in your own thoughts. A selection of them will appear on Thursday.

That’s not the end of it, though.

Printed or not, all responses will be heard. They’ll be screened for trends that can be considered for further development, perhaps as Perspective page themes or editorial topics.

If a response produces a fresh approach to a stale issue, or shows especially keen insight, or relates a telling personal experience, the callers responsible may be invited to contribute their thoughts in greater depth.

With the new approach readers can examine conflicting viewpoints side by side. They’ll favor some over others. Better, they may discover that beneath surface differences lie shared values and the seeds of an elusive consensus.

A new approach deserves a new name, and Off the News will get one: Bagpipes.

Bagpipes was picked because what sounds at first like discordant squawking sometimes turns out, with a little patient listening, to be music. Hauntingly beautiful music if you have an ear for it.

That’s true with bagpipes, and it’s true with public discourse.

With luck, Bagpipes will attract a variety of outlooks on important issues. If some of it sounds like squawking, keep your ear tuned for the melody.

You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note.

xxxx