Everyone is entitled to have an opinion

Judging by the rambling rant by Mr. Navarrette on June 15 he must have a bee up his intellectual nose. I wonder what it is he's really saying? Is he protesting free speech, or professing that only "professional journalists" have that right? Does he believe everyone else's opinion is flawed, or professing that he should have exclusive right to research and therefore sound opinion? That, to me, has the strong smell of intellectual elitism.

Is he cursing technology, or the fact that whatever advantage in debate he thought he may have had previously is lost to the masses? Could it be he is chafed by the fact that more people than he realized may have an opposing viewpoint? Maybe it's the fact that those with such an opposing viewpoint have the ability to research, thinking, experience, and all the other tools he uses?

He states that his effort is to get people to think about what they believe, why they believe it, and the fact that some would rather not. I agree that some would rather not. But there is the real possibility that there are some that have thought about what they believe and why. And those some may have come to the conclusion that they are confident in their position on whatever subject he addresses. Maybe the "troubling sign" Mr. Navarette is irritated by is the fact that he has been unable to change what some believe into what he believes?

Really Mr. Navarette, what is it you are trying to say?

Greg Stone

Hanover Park