<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">I'm beginning to think that the only thing Hank and I have in common is that we both laugh when I call him an "idiot." It is hard to know where to begin. Suffice to say that this is a nice bit of evidence of the very point </span></font></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; ">My dear but this article is a nice example of </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; ">"In recent years, 'The Viz' has become a platform where a rather small but egotistical group of pompous academics bloviate regularly about whatever fires them up on any given day."</span><br><br><br></div><div><br>On Jun 21, 2011, at 12:47 PM, "Bill London" <<a href="mailto:london@moscow.com">london@moscow.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<div style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<h1 style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial">Moscow-Pullman Daily News -
<a href="http://DNews.com"><a href="http://DNews.com">DNews.com</a></a></font></h1>
<h2><font face="Arial"> <font face="Arial"><strong><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">Henry D. Johnston</font></strong></font></font></h2>
<h2><font face="Arial">HIS VIEW: 'Visionaries' exercise freedom of speech
</font></h2>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><br><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">June 21, 2011</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">I
believe the First Amendment, namely freedom of speech, applies to everyone. One
of the things I enjoy about being a columnist is the interaction I get from
readers either in person, through email or a letter to the editor. The
readership of this paper is certainly diverse, and the feedback is usually
cordial even when people are disagreeing with me.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">Except
for my last column.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">Two
weeks ago I sided with the Moscow City Council with regard to ExxonMobil's
proposed megaload shipments. My position is that, regardless of what one thinks
of the moral or ethical implications of the oil sands project in Canada, it is
not up to Moscow to pass judgment and prevent legal, permitted loads from
traveling through our town. If the loads are legally permitted to move then we
can't change the rules just because we disagree with what the loads are or who
they belong to. That is an issue for the state Legislature, not the city
council, to take up.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">Anyway,
I received emails from readers complimenting me on my position and also took in
comments from a few dissenters. And then, as I sometimes do, I checked in online
to see what the Vision 2020 crowd was saying.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">If
you're not up on early '90s technology, Vision 2020 is basically a giant email
list called a "listserv" where people share their opinions. In recent years,
"The Viz" has become a platform where a rather small but egotistical group of
pompous academics bloviate regularly about whatever fires them up on any given
day.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">Two
weeks ago, I was their target. </font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">Except
it wasn't my stance on megaloads that caused me to suffer the wrath of these
keyboard commandos. Oddly enough it was the fact that they felt I painted the
anti-megaload crowd with a giant brush when I called them
hippies.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">But
guess what? </font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">Like it
or not, Moscow does have a rather large and diverse population of people who
could be defined as hippies, even if they don't fit the image from the 1960s.
And it is our diverse culture that makes Moscow unique and, sometimes to my
chagrin, flavors our political climate to something entirely different from the
rest of Idaho.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">At
least that's my opinion, which is protected under the First Amendment, just like
yours.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">But the
enlightened crowd of "visionaries" didn't see it that way.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">One
user called me an "offensive idiot," and another said my column was a "pathetic
excuse for analysis." Some questioned why the Daily News can't fire me and hire
better writers and suggested because we live between two universities that all
columnists should be college professors or students, somehow producing a better
opinion page.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">One
person went as far as to ask if anyone knew who I was, where I lived or what I
did for a living. Why does it matter? Last I checked, I was Henry Johnston who
lives in Moscow, Idaho, not Soviet Russia.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">After
reading all the vitriol from these self-proclaimed tolerant liberals, I was half
expecting an angry mob to show up on my doorstep with torches and pitchforks,
smelling of patchouli oil and singing "Kumbaya."</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">I'm not
sharing this experience because I want to point fingers and whine about someone
picking on me. I'm doing so because even as nasty as some of the comments were,
they and this column are perfect examples of free speech in action.
</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">Joe
Reader has just as much right to call me an idiot as I do to call him a hippie.
It's all part of being an American and exercising the rights we are so very
lucky to have.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">So I
encourage everyone to continue to debate topics of every nature in whatever
venue we have available, be it on the opinion page, online or in person. I'm
tough enough to handle it and will chuckle and smile when we do because, quite
frankly, not doing so would be un-American.</font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">But,
then again, that's just my opinion. </font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 10px"><font face="Arial"><strong><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">Henry D. Johnston</font></strong><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt"> lives in Moscow. He can be reached via email at
</font></font><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt"><a href="mailto:moscowmoderate@gmail.com"><font face="Arial">moscowmoderate@gmail.com</font></a></font><font face="Arial"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 10.9pt">.</font></font></p></div></div>
</div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>=======================================================</span><br><span> List services made available by First Step Internet, </span><br><span> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. </span><br><span> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a> </span><br><span> <a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com"><a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a></a></span><br><span>=======================================================</span></div></blockquote></body></html>