The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Editorial: Sage advice that’s still worth following today


With the 2020 Presidential election now less than two weeks away, we offer the following advice, which first appeared on The Mountain Eagle’s editorial page a little more than 110 years ago. It is reprinted verbatim from the then-three-year-old newspaper’s September 15, 1910 edition and written by founding editor Nehemiah M. Webb.

“Don’t forget that your neighbor, tho’ he differs from you politically, may be just as honest in his convictions as you are, that this is a free country where freedom of opinion is one of the biggest of the broad foundation-stones of our government, and there would be an end to it without it.

“Be tolerant, therefore, or rather not tolerant but rational, patriotic and good natured. Stand by your convictions and let your neighbor stand by his, if so disposed. If you want to talk politics, do so, but do it calmly and reasonably and bear in mind that just as you have made up your mind as to the way you expect ever to vote, ninety-nine hundredths of the voting population has done the same thing and the little blast you can get up won’t change them.”

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