by Charles Gallatin

I just finished reading Ray “I could be wrong” Wolbrecht’s column about progressives. I’d like to respond to the inaccuracies and convoluted reasoning therein.

Let’s start with the biggest headslapper, his definition of a progressive. A synopsis of several online sources defines a progressive as “Favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters.”

That jibes with my understanding of what a progressive is. Ray would have us believe it’s someone who “means to be in conflict soley with establishment – that being the established rules of civility, civil authority, ethical absolutes and college presidents.” Which is fairly indecipherable (solely? college presidents?), but that bit of inanity doesn’t mask the fact that he is down on progressives. It colors his outlook and makes the rest of his column nothing more than a caustic rant.

Let’s move on, Ray has certainly given us a lot of ground to cover. “It has to be stressful being a progressive liberal these days.” Actually, no. When the conservative party picks a thin-skinned, philandering, racist, sexist, egotistical bully as its presidential nominee, the stress is on the other foot, as it were. Progressives and liberals are mostly just watching in head-shaking amazement. As are traditional conservatives.

Ray then strings together a series of non sequiturs to make the baseless claim that progressives want to create their own “absolute values,” as opposed to going along with societal norms. “If a person has a right to create his own absolute values . . . where is the incentive to behavior which takes others into consideration.” Ray believes there is only one truth, only one reality. And, of course, he is privy to what that one truth is that the “progressives” he so disdains are supposedly not willing to acknowledge.

It’s safe to say the “truth” Ray sees as being rejected is his own. Apparently he feels those of us not in agreement with him are not only misguided, we’re causing societal meltdown. “The result of the rejection of truth and any absolute values is leading to chaos.”

If progressives’ desire to see fewer unarmed black people being shot by the police is causing chaos, then I would suggest we need more progressives and more so-called “chaos.”

Ray is a comfortably retired white guy, with no greater challenge than writing loopy columns. He is not a black man, or he might know of the truth of being pulled over for DWB (driving while black). He is not an immigrant, or he might know of the truth of having his meager wages stolen. He’s not a woman, or he might know of the truth of sexual harrassment.

“Progressives try to reorganize society without absolutes using sand as a foundation.” Actually Ray, progressives are trying to move us toward a better society using such absolutes as “don’t kill those who are unarmed no matter their color,” “don’t steal from anyone,” “don’t sexually harrass people.” Depending on which side of the “truth” you care to see, change is sorely needed in our society.

And finally we have what amounts to irresponsible finger pointing. Regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, Ray says they “encourage burning and rioting and all kinds of lawlessness.” This is flatly wrong and it’s an irresponsible accusation which he should be ashamed of. Those in the BLM movement gather in peaceful protest because they are tired of being casually killed for no good reason. Some of those who show up are engaged in lawless behavior, to be sure. But to condemn the entire movement for the actions of the few is misguided at best. I doubt if Ray would say that all cops are bad just because a few of them are murdering black people without cause.

There is much more inanity to parse, such as “when confronted with absolute truth, I have heard liberals say, ‘Well, what about Bush?’” Huh? But I’ll save that for another column. In the meantime, I think Ray might want to reconsider the name of his column. I would suggest “I’m definitely wrong.”

charlesgallatin@yahoo.com