Ingram's June 2022

B E T W E E N T H E L I N E S

And yet no one but Taylor even men tioned today’s ultimate equity issue—the crushing price Average Joe has to pay at the pump. Throwing the panel a curve, Taylor moved away from discussions of energy and cited as the “greatest problem” today our increasing inability to express differ ing opinions without hating each other. In April, Kansas City’s favorite weath erman, Gary Lezak, learned just how much hate a different opinion can generate. “I think there are benefits to a warmer climate, more than if the Earth were turning colder,” Lezak tweeted. “I do not believe there is any emergency. It’s a very long-term, gradual process.” Responded a local biology teacher, one of many irate viewers, “Oh Gary! We’ve loved you for years but this is REALLY not OK. So much about this is wrong, backwards, and downright dan gerous.” What is dangerous, as Taylor suggested, is our increasing inability to

discuss anything more controversial than a called third strike at a Royals game. Under pressure, Lezak recanted. The problem has been metastasizing for years. Fifteen years ago, I moderated an Ingram’s panel on energy. One of our participants on that panel, Jason Holsman, Other than Average Joe’s money, the one resource that has been disappearing is the freedom to speak one’s mind. then a Democratic state representative and now a Missouri Public Service commis sioner, suggested that the road ahead was going to be a bumpy one for the average Joe. To “solve one of the greatest issues

that my generation faces,” Joe was simply going to have to pay more for energy. When I asked Holsman to explain what that issue was, he looked surprised and scrambled to answer, citing first our finite energy reserves and only then offering the qualifier that they “produce the carbon emissions that we’re trying to move away from.” In the last 15 years, Holsman’s “great est issue” has proven to be so much hot air. Our climate is not noticeably different today than it was then, and our energy resources, if anything, seem more bounti ful—if we’re willing to extract them. Other than Average Joe’s money, the one resource that has been disappearing is the freedom to speak one’s mind. Allan Katz has a good idea. Now, he and his allies just have to swallow their biases and make it work. The views expressed in this column are the writer’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Ingram’s Magazine. Jack Cashill , Senior Editor, Editorial @ Ingrams.com

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June 2022

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