I see that the reaction to my article on diversity (“Diversity and the FW School Board,” June 18) was what I expected.

I asked a simple question: How does a diverse school board improve education, specifically, improve standardized test scores?

Did I get an answer? No. There are just more calls for The Mirror to stop printing my writings. Maybe it’s time for a history lesson. The very first thing that the Founding Fathers put in the Bill of Rights was wording to guarantee freedom of the press. It’s the First Amendment. The very first one. That is significant.

They realized that issues must be discussed in the public space so that people could make up their minds and know who to vote for. Simple.

Yet the free press is rapidly disappearing in America. It is well known that major newspapers, magazines and TV networks have a political bias. This becomes important in a one-newspaper town, which most are. In the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, there was something called “token blacks.” This is where a company would hire a black person to show that they were following the spirit of civil rights.

In the press today, we have “token conservatives.” All major news media outlets have at least one conservative writer so they can say that they are not biased. So we find a newspaper with 10 liberal editorialists and one conservative editorialist and call it fair reporting.

The Mirror should be applauded for its diversity on the editorial pages. They even let me write there. And they let you write there too if you have something to say.

We see people invited to universities to speak, and they are shouted down by the students. The equivalent in the press is to call on the newspaper not to print my writings. Why? Because you don’t like what I say? Remember we are talking about the free press here. I have a right to say it and you have a right to ask the paper not to print it.

Fortunately, some newspaper editors see their proper role in a democracy, which is to show many points of view. So don’t argue with the paper, argue with yourselves. Or argue with me. My e-mail address is at the end of each article I write. If you want, I will even give you my phone number this time. Call me. I am a nice guy and we will have a civil conversation.

Furthermore, there are certain subjects that seem to be off-limits. Surely you understand that we can’t possibly solve a problem that we are prevented from even discussing.

So when I write on these off-limit subjects, the reaction would be “Why does The Mirror even print this stuff?” The answer to that is simple. It might start a conversation in the community leading to solving this problem. What is wrong with that? What is wrong with that is that some people do not want it discussed. They do not want the statistics printed. This is because it might make a mockery of our grand claims on progress in civil rights in America. The subject is forbidden just as the N-word is forbidden.

Our democracy is no longer a group of well-informed citizens, logically arguing the aspects of an issue so as to see who to vote for. No. We are now polarized into two camps, one of which does not even want the conversations to take place, shouting down speakers and calling for papers to stop printing the thoughts of someone with whom they disagree.

I know my writings are controversial and I do that on purpose. I could write milquetoast stuff, but in my mind, it would not be worth reading. The whole point in writing is to make people think.

So I will again pose the question: “How does a diverse school board improve education?” If it doesn’t, then what are we bragging about? Is the school board trying to make progress in education or progress in civil rights?

Bill Pirkle,

Federal Way

Note: Bill Pirkle can be reached at bpirkle@zipcon.net or (253) 839-4304.