Gary has heard this story too many times: It’s from years ago at one of our holiday Open House events to which we invited neighbors and co-workers and hosted forty or so. I was teaching, so for a few weeks before, I came home from school and made small savory pastries and baked cakes and cookies and stashed them in the freezer. We cleaned the house, me down on my hands and knees to scrub the floors. The party began at 2pm and ended two hours later. It was a great deal of work, but cleanup after the party took only minutes, not hours, no messes, no fights. We served only sparkling non-alcoholic apple juice. That might be why people only chatted, ate, and then went home without hard feelings.

One year, a co-worker went off on me about people who claimed everything was a matter of opinion. “You English teachers want everything to be a matter of opinion. Some things are not opinion. There are such things as facts!” He raised his voice, not quite yelling, went on for a bit, the closest to an argument we ever experienced at our parties. He was also talking at me.

For the record, I have never claimed that everything was subject to opinion. Nevertheless, I heard what he said. That uncomfortable moment impacted me and my teaching. I was careful to make that distinction with my students: fact and opinion are not the same thing. Some accepted truths are subject to interpretation and opinion. Some facts are indisputable. Know the difference.

The rewards of listening closely to someone who is not you.

—Scott Korb in his craft talk at the Pacific University MFA residency in Seaside, Oregon on 7 January 2023

There are opinions about what colors people should wear, where we should live or should not live, who is prettier or wiser, what books and movies are best. The people who publish such opinions in media are sometimes experts and their opinions are trusted. Sometimes those opinions are merely preference. I did not like either of the Knives Out movies, for example. I do not understand Daniel Craig’s appeal and find his “Southern” accent ridiculous. The plots and themes of those movies, despite all the rest of the talent and the glossy film-making, seem off-base and silly. I am entitled to that opinion. You are entitled to yours. The reviewers who write for The New Yorker or New York Times are also entitled to theirs. (The writer for The New Yorker almost agrees with me; the writer for New York Times does not.) It is still all opinion.

That those two films have been popular is fact, not a matter of opinion. Lots of people and most critics liked them both. That fewer people are going to theaters is also fact. The world is round, humans need oxygen to breathe and live, and world temperatures are rising overall—facts, not opinions. Gravity. Sunshine. Rain. The distinction is not always so clear.

Causing unnecessary pain is cruel. Opinion? If fact, many experiments done with animals are cruel. Whether and when that cruelty is warranted is clearly a matter of opinion. Never? Sometimes? Usually? Is causing unnecessary pain ever cruel? Does anyone with a moral sense want to argue otherwise? Maybe so. Even my statement about causing pain to animals as cruel is my opinion. Not everyone agrees. Define “cruel.” Define “warranted.” Truth and fact can become messy all too quickly.

Is it right to sacrifice the life of one in order to save the many?—that’s where opinion and fact collide.

On the other hand, some issues are settled fact.

Most everyone in the world understands that global warming is a real phenomena. The science is clear. These are facts—that CO₂ has warmed the oceans, that warming oceans (no doubt they are warming) contribute to climate change throughout the planet, that warming oceans lead to more frequent and more powerful storms coming off the ocean (the connection is established), and that warming results in the loss of ice sheets and glaciers (happening), and that this in turn may cause oceans to rise and flood coastal and low-lying human communities (almost undeniable). Science is pretty much universal in declaring this a matter of fact, not guesswork, untried theory, or opinion.

Ignoring a fact does not make it go away.

I will say it again: Not talking about a problem, refusing to hear about it, pretending facts are mere opinions, or ignoring them will not make them go away.

Yesterday I ran south, which I rarely do, but the tide was high and still coming in and the only available sand was south, so I ran that way. I knew I wouldn’t be able to run back north on the sand, that it would be swept over before I could run north again, but I planned to run on the roads to get back north again. And then I had a distressing exchange with a friend who was sitting onshore. She told me to run the forest. Several times. Then, we chatted. She said if people would stop talking about Trump he would go away, and she told me she did not trust media news, and then she told me never to discuss the news with her again.

My opinions upset her and she did not want to hear about it. Her opinions also upset me.

And I understand that some people find the news distressing. I avoid the more violent television shows, avoid horror fiction, and sometimes only read headlines. But I am a citizen and I vote. I know enough about how the world works to recognize lies when I hear them. I recognize the difference between reports of opinion and reporting of fact—the different between the straight news of how a six year old found and took a pistol to class and shot his teacher, how she dropped to the floor but continued telling her other students to run, how her injury was life-threatening but at this point might live, how the child has been taken into custody and will not be charged as an adult because state law prevents that, and also prevents a child of six being held in juvenile detention. Those are facts.

Opinions vary about these facts. Some people commenting on this news, express opinions. They blame parents or guns, failure to screen entrance to the school or compare gun deaths in the US to knifings in the UK. They want children protected by various means or believe we are overreacting—all this opinion. And just as with a film review, experts vary. One undeniable fact is that people are more likely to die by their own gun than protect their own lives with one. Another is that the more guns in a population, the more likely we are to die from one. These are mere statistics, not subject to opinion. The reasons are slippery.

One thing is true: Gun deaths will not end because we stop talking about them. We need to know more if we hope to fix this problem that is unique to our nation. If we always turn away in order to maintain peace of mind, we cannot solve anything. We really do have to do something. In a democracy, all action begins with public will.

In the ancient city state of Athens, every citizen was required to vote as a condition of his citizenship. [I do mean “his citizenship” of course, since women barely counted as humans in ancient Athens, slaves of any color were not citizens, neither were the poor. Only the elite, land-owning males were citizens, as best I can recall—someone correct me if I am wrong about that.]

It was not a right to vote, it was a condition of membership in that community. [Allowing that the democracy in question 2500 years ago served the needs only of the elite.]

Modern democracy is more democratic, protecting and serving the rights of all: A government of the people, by the people, and for the people. All the people. The person who serves children lunch in the cafeteria and the salesperson in the department store, the corporate executive and the podiatrist, the realtor and the retired grocer. We are all supposed to have our say and all our opinions respected. We should all know enough to recognize the different between fact and opinion, as slippery as that might get, and to participate in our nation’s government by representation.

Over 60% of eligible Americans voted in the 2020 presidential election, according to survey data from the Census Bureau. Turnout reached its highest level in three decades. Use of nontraditional voting methods, such as vote-by-mail and early voting, more than doubled as states adopted new policies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

—USAfacts

It is my opinion that people should engage with the world they live in. We had a free and mostly fair election where a majority of Americans entitled to vote did so. It is my opinion that this is a good thing, this record-breaking vote. It is my opinion that 90% would be better. I know I will not like or agree with everyone, but they should know enough about what’s going on to make a choice reflecting their own interests and respect for others’ interests. That is what our nation stands for.

It is my opinion that failing to pay attention does a disservice to our country. Is that a fact? I’m not sure it is, but it is my deeply held belief that knowledge is power and that citizenship requires my participation.

“We believe that in America our diversity is a strength—it is not a weakness—an economic strength, a competitive strength, a cultural strength…. We are a gorgeous mosaic of people from throughout the world. As John Lewis would sometimes remind us on this floor, we may have come over on different ships but we’re all in the same boat now. We are white. We are Black. We are Latino. We are Asian. We are Native American. We are Christian. We are Jewish. We are Muslim. We are Hindu. We are religious. We are secular. We are gay. We are straight. We are young. We are older. We are women. We are men. We are citizens. We are dreamers. … Out of many, we are one. That’s what makes America a great country, and no matter what kind of haters are trying to divide us, we’re not going to let anyone take that away from us, not now, not ever. This is the United States of America…. So on this first day, let us commit to the American dream, a dream that promises that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to provide a comfortable living for yourself and for your family, educate your children, purchase a home, and one day retire with grace and dignity. … we will never compromise our principles. House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy…benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism, governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life issues over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, ‘yes, we can’ over ‘you can’t do it,’ and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation. We will always do the right thing by the American people.”

Minority Leader Jeffries’s speech at the ceremonial handing over of the speaker’s gavel from the Democrats to the Republicans as reported by Heather Cox Richardson