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See Trail for other view

Don Rogers

This wasn’t my idea. So of course it ranks right up there with the dumbest. I’m supposed to argue each Thursday in this space with the crazy lady in The Vail Trail office around the corner. Only thing is my side runs here, in the Daily. And hers goes in the Trail.The designer of the icon with this commentary should have tied one of those boxing gloves behind my back. I won’t need both to fend off Ms. Miller’s blows. Who reads her paper anyway? This idea has all the sound and fury of one hand clapping, raising again that philosophical question about whether a tree really fell in the forest if no one was there to see it.I mean, I know a staff works there, or does something involving frowns and fingers incessantly tapping keyboards. But do they actually publish anything these days? I mean, besides something the Daily already did?I think the topic this week is to introduce the feature, this “Point-Counterpoint,” “I’m Right-She’s Wrong,” “He Said-She Said,” “Old Dudes vs. Still In Her Primes” commentary.I suppose we’ll take the opposite sides of all manner of subjects. If she declares that the sun rose this morning in the East, I’ll assure you it was the West, or at least that’s the way she was looking as she wrote, at dusk. You know, women and sense of direction, oil and water, and all that. A warning to the earnest folks who sometimes call or write full of righteous indignation that they read an opinion in their newspaper: Yep, we do that, too. Always have. This will be another. That’s why we label this part of the paper “Commentary.” Will you be needing any more clues, then? This will be all opinion, generally about another columnist’s opinion, in the opinion section. And as opinions go – by definition, actually – these commentaries will be biased, one-sided and may even get one or two of you a little irked. One can only hope. But hey, if you are looking for agreement, go to the other paper or visit VailTrail.com. Between the two of us, maybe you can find that publication biased your way. Don’t try to fool me that you only deal in facts and have no use for opinion, only crystal-clear logic.Yeah, right. Kurt Vonnegut drew an astrick in his novel “Breakfast of Champions” long ago and explained that like, um, what he was symbolizing with the astrick, everyone has opinions, too. Even Fox News.Tamara has a bunch of funny ones, so this should be interesting. One of her loonier ideas is that middle-aged white males are the scourge of the Earth. But think about it, without middle-aged males, they don’t really have to be white, who would do anything? Look at your local mayors, your county commissioners, your company executives, police chiefs, preachers. Senators, presidents and such. Men, men, men. Who built Vail Mountain? Men. Who invented the national pastime? Men. Who fly space shuttles? Men. Mostly middle-aged ones, too.Case closed. So why do we need an opposing column when these things are just so obvious? I mean, what could Tamara possibly say to that? Managing Editor Don Rogers can be reached at 748-2920, or editor@vaildaily.com. Read his blog at http://www.vaildaily.com/section/BLOG.


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