Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

An interesting piece of advocacy came across my desk late this week.

It was a column by Dick Hughes, a former editor of the Salem Statesman-Journal’s editorial page who now writes for himself – and for folks like me who like what he writes.

This time, as this blog headline indicates, he decided to write about “kindness in politics,” often a foreign notion these days as all of us are confronted by Donald Trump for whom the word kindness apparently never crosses his mind or emerged from his mouth.

A summary from Hughes:

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This is not the column I planned to write, the one for which I interviewed legislators this week.

“This is not the column I wanted to write. But it is the column I must write.

“It is a plea. No matter how much we dislike the current U.S. president or the incoming president, do not demonize either him or his followers.

“No matter how much we disdain Oregon’s Democrat leaders or the Republicans who oppose their policies, please forgo the inflammatory rhetoric.

“We might save a life.”

By the last phrase, Hughes referred to the recent tragedies in New Orleans and Las Vegas where individuals, probably acting alone, committed acts that qualified as “domestic terrorism.”

For background, I have known him for more than 30 since back in the days when I worked in state government he worked for the Salem Statesman-Journal.  One of my assignments then was to relate to media on behalf of state government.

So, Hughes and I talked a lot and, despite different assignments, managed to show each other the word Hughes now advocates using – “kindness.”

He writes on:

“How did we let ourselves go so far astray?  Have we substituted “All’s fair in love and war” for the Golden Rule, which existed in various forms since antiquity:  ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’

“In our homes, our schools, our religious institutions and elsewhere, we are taught to treat one another with respect.  We are encouraged, in what has almost become a cliché, to ‘disagree without being disagreeable.’  Those of us of the Christian faith are instructed, regardless of the circumstances, to follow Jesus’ teaching:  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’

Yet, today, Hughes continues, we feel justified in “denigrating not just the other person’s view but the person themselves.”

“We want civics taught in our schools but fail to act civilly.  We have gone from criticizing an idea as idiotic to branding its adherents as idiots.

“Think back to the negative ads that many Oregon candidates deployed in the 2024 elections and which voters embraced.  The campaigns’ desire to win outwitted common decency.  Is this how politicians and the public will act as the 2025 Legislature begins its work on Monday?

“Oregon’s political and social divides are not new, but they are wider and deeper.”

Oregon used to be known, Hughes writes and I agree, as a political trendsetter in positive ways.  Here, in the past, Republicans managed to find a way to work with Democrats and Democrats managed to find a way to work with Republicans.

So, Hughes challenges all of us to put civil discourse above personal and political gain, to demonstrate kindness toward all, regardless of politics or personal situation and, yes, to disagree without being so disagreeable.

Possible?  Well, to use a time worn phrase, only time will tell.  But in these early days of 2025, I prefer to land on the side of a bit of optimism.