The marketplace of information, work and leisure offers people so many other attractive ways they could be spending their precious 24-hour allotment. All this is by way of suggesting that I think too many editorial pages today are on the wrong track. I suspect that many readers would welcome an editorial voice with a strong point of view, strongly stated. That is because so much of the world of information now is trying to be largely non-judgmental. Newspapers, mindful of diverse constituencies, are careful not to offend.
TV news is pabulum.
But TV s evening talk shows are shouting matches, conferring dignity on the kind of argumentation formerly heard in bars or dormitories. Yet the world keeps tossing up events, issues about which an informed electorate needs to have reasonably intelligent opinions. And the best way to put that opinion-forming process in motion is by poking, prodding and pleading with your readership. That is, the best opinions are reactions to someone else s opinions in this instance the highly opinionated editorial writer. Some 500 eminent people signed a letter to the effect that the current war isn t working and should be abandoned.