Opinion pages as diverse as our communities

A half dozen readers contacted the newspaper last week to express outrage at Wednesday’s editorial cartoon.

Mostly they said it was racist.

Several demanded an apology.

One described it as “unacceptable hatred!”

I didn’t see it that way.

If you missed it, the cartoon published on Wednesday’s Voices page depicted a shark encountering a sign that read:

“Warning! Go near shore at your own risk. Angry white males with easy access to guns.”

I’ve been reading editorial cartoons long enough to know that some — like poems — can say different things to different people.

I think cartoonist Joe Heller — a white male — was simply suggesting too many angry white males with easy access to guns are responsible for too many mass murders.

Our unhappy readers apparently felt like Heller was saying all white males are dangerous. One reader said he felt concern for his safety because of the media’s depiction of white Christians in America today.

We are all entitled to our opinions, and our feelings.

Here are a few of mine:

Our opinion pages — we call them Voices in The Eastern New Mexico News — are intended to give voice to all. It says that right at the top of this page.

While our primary “official” position on political issues has been from the libertarian perspective — less government, more transparent government — for the past 90 years, we put a lot of effort into ensuring Republican, Democrat, “conservative” and “progressive” voices are all heard with regularity.

Recent samplings from our opinion pages, for example, include:

• the conservative columnist Rich Lowry, who’s published each Sunday;

• libertarian columnist Kent McManigal, who’s published each Wednesday;

• letters to the editor as diverse as our communities;

• the twice-weekly Mallard Fillmore cartoon — they don’t get more conservative than that;

• Tom McDonald’s weekly column, which leans left, on state issues;

• and Heller’s twice-weekly cartoon, which is all over the map from a political perspective. He draws Donald Trump with small hands and Bill Clinton with his pants around his knees.

I think most of Heller’s work leans libertarian, but he often suggests we’d be safer with stricter gun laws so it’s hard to put him in a political box.

I may be the only fellow on the High Plains who thinks we don’t need gun laws, that open borders would be fine, and that government should make itself so small we barely know it’s there.

You may call me crazy, but you won’t be getting an apology for championing the First Amendment on our newspaper’s opinion pages.

— David Stevens

Publisher