Civil Discourse, Peons, Fear and Trembling

So I'm two steps from the supper table—heaping salad from the garden, spaghetti, homemade rolls, yum!—when the phone rings. I get it, and a woman asks, "Are you the one who writes all those letters to the editor about the Highway 34 project?"

All those letters? I think I sent one letter, an edited version of this blog post, to the Madison Daily Leader on the subject of expanding Highway 34. That letter ran in print in May 2007.

I mention that I write a lot and ask if the caller has read my website. She says she has nothing to do with computers. Let's not get too carried away with calling newspapers "legacy media": I still get a lot more comments around town about my occasional letters to the editor than I do my daily blog output. (Then again, folks who want to comment about my blog don't have to wait to bump into me at the grocery store.)

Anyway, the lady caller, who avoided naming herself until the very end of the call, said she agreed with my suggestion that we build more turning lanes on Highway 34 rather than making it a full four-laner all the way from Lake Madison to I-29. "We've got other roads into Madison," she said. She'd rather see us improve Highway 19 up from I-90, not with four lanes, but just decent shoulders where folks would have room to pull over (she's right: I've biked Highway 19, and there's not a lot of room between your wheels and the ditch).

The caller expressed disapproval of the various Highway 34 Four for the Future signs around town. She suggested I balance that message by writing another letter to the paper on this topic. I noted that I've already written on the topic, and that a letter from a different voice in the community might be more effective. "Ma'am, why don't you write that letter?"

"Oh, I don't want my name in the paper. I'm just a peon."

Peon? There's a word that doesn't pop into every phone conversation. I asked the woman who she thought I was. I'm not money; I'm just a local who say what he's thinking. I'm no different from you, I told the caller. What's stopping you from writing that letter?

"I'm intimidated by the folks with money."

Intimidated. I've heard people say it before, in person and online. Folks around here are afraid of the simple business of saying what they think. There's this strange idea that if we engage in simple civil discourse, if we take a firm public position on anything, the "folks with money" in Madison are going to come and take away our birthdays.

But seriously, what does the caller think would happen: she'd write a letter to the editor, and the Highway 34 boosters would come over and tear up her rosebushes?

The caller wouldn't pin her intimidation to any specific outcome, but despite my polite urgings, she wouldn't commit to writing that letter herself.

Looks like I still have work to do. I'll keep trying!