It's tough to love your enemy when you'd rather not even know him

I've spent the last several weeks reading fish reports and white papers on how Dungeness crab reproduce. I know. Riveting stuff. Don't worry. There's a column coming on why it's a bad idea to put pink salmon farms in a state park so a few fishermen can catch them. Something else is happening in the process of trying to get all the relevant facts to bring to you. I fear I have been caught in the trap too many "liberal elitists" have found themselves in. Just so we're clear, that's not a term I self-identify with no matter how many times people call me that.

Here's my issue. A few of the folks who are pushing for the pink salmon pens in my neighborhood park I don't really know, and don't really like. I KNOW! My mind is about as open as Fort Knox on this. A few of the folks are people I've known my whole life who I only had impressions of. They seemed smart, aloof at times, and very "we'll get ours and to hell with the rest of you."

A month or so I listened to the city council meeting on my local public radio. I promise not to judge how you spend your Monday nights if you'll do me the same courtesy. For hours the town people of Homer lined up to give testimony about a resolution regarding tolerance. In case you're keeping track of that, it didn't go well. Apparently Homer is such a remarkably tolerant town that they can't abide by a declaration of inclusivity and are now running a recall campaign against the council members who brought it forward — even though the resolution failed. They remind me of that great line from Austin Powers, "There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch."

[Homer City Council votes down inclusivity resolution]

Anyway, back to the fish farmers. I heard them on my radio talking about how Homer didn't need to say what we so clearly are — tolerant — and one of them went on about how fabulous Trump is. Well, there's an opinion I don't agree with. That's a mild assessment of what I think.

Here's the deal. I have a problem with fish farming in a park — especially where I live — and these are people I should be trying to understand. It's silly they want to trade our crab stock to feed a puny salmon that sells for 8 cents a pound. I don't want to talk to them. Chances are good they don't think much of me either. I'm OK with that. It's not like we're going to have a shouting match at the Gear Shed. That would be useless and real life isn't like the comment sections at the end of columns.

So here's the trap. I don't really think this is about partisan politics. It may be about fish. I have friends — people I love — who were happy about the election and even attended the inauguration. They aren't my "token" conservative friends. It's real. I'm guessing we're all in the same boat on this one. How boring would our lives be if we only conversed with people who agree with us.

[Recall vote targeting Homer council members will proceed]

I've been hearing the media navel gaze and the Democratic party try to explain away why the election went the way it did. It's nauseating. "We just didn't listen to the working class." Really? First of all, they are the rural, poor and white of our population. The term "working class" is to make them feel like they are misplaced millionaires whose time is coming. Second, I don't want to talk to people who seem so easily fooled by misogyny and racism and seem to forget all the rules they learn about on Sunday mornings. (This is not a football reference.)

Wait. Maybe I just made the point of the navel gazers.

Is it considered elitist if you don't think you're better than people, but still think they are wrong? I'm not asking for a friend.

Darlings, maybe you're dealing with the same struggle in your cubicle or with neighbors who don't know that's it's time to take their "Lock Her Up" sign out of their yard. Someone once told me I had a choice in life; you can be loving or you can be right, and they are rarely the same thing. For the love of fish, I guess I'm going to have to pick up the phone this week. Buck the tide of the era and try to find solutions. If you figure out a formula for how to make it easy, let me know.

Shannyn Moore is a radio broadcaster.

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