Tommy Denton

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Half of 2007 slipped into history yesterday. Half remains, measured day to day on the calendar but without any express promises of what lies ahead.

In his "Examen of Consciousness," Ignatius of Loyola required of his Jesuits a daily prayer of thanksgiving for all in their lives that they possessed and experienced: "All is gift."

In the rush of days, weeks, months and years, unexamined lives may overlook or ignore even the most obvious gifts: life itself, loved ones, the grandeur of such natural splendors as the Blue Ridge and the folds of its adjoining valleys.

Not all the gifts necessarily promise sweet satisfaction. Some of those that seem less desirable, however, may provide the abrasive friction -- like a fine sandpaper -- that ultimately polishes an otherwise ignored surface of daily life.

The years that I've spent in the craft of coaxing words into essays never would have been possible without the "gift" of readers, a significant number of whom provided a good deal of abrasive friction in the form of vigorous criticism. Bless 'em.

Some of those critiques presented gracious reminders that correction can be not only humbling but also inspiring.

Others demanded personal replies to their caustic complaints. Replying to those who express agreement and offer praise cannot provide nearly the adrenaline rush and combative satisfaction provided by rhetorical jousting with a wrongly made-up mind prone to rudeness.

I recently looked back over a few of those correspondences. Some of the more provocative ones I now recognize as "gifts" from readers.

Although my replies weren't originally intended for publication, the readers' criticisms stimulated responses that helped me to crystallize some ideas and affirm some core principles that have guided my editorial labors.

From my e-mail files in answer to a person who lambasted a column condemning repeal of the estate tax, I wrote:

In short, I believe -- and you're fully entitled to disagree, this being a free country -- that you are profoundly mistaken in your understanding of the tax system as merely a "revenue collector."

For at least a century, the tax code with its sundry incentives (home ownership, GI Bill, oil depletion allowance, capital gains preferences, etc.) has been massaged and manipulated to make possible a general prosperity unheard of in human history.

The question remains: How to "tinker" with it to keep it from swinging out of equilibrium, so that the greatest good accrues to the greatest number? The material fulfillment of the preamble to the Constitution did not really get more than lip service until the Progressive Era, in response to the predations of the robber barons, and it did not happen in a meaningful way until the New Deal.

Now the heirs of the robber barons want theirs -- again, and they would prefer to have it all. That, after all, is how the greedy keep score.

So, those of good faith can choose to sit back and let things "just happen" according to the unmanipulated, unlobbied metaphysical workings of the marketplace (right!), or they can assume the duties of responsible citizens and struggle to make our nation's collective actions reflect our stated ideals, as embodied in our founding charter.

Of course, reasonable people of good faith are free to disagree.

To an irate reader who deplored my advocacy of a universal health care system in the United States, I replied:

We Americans pay far more for our "system" and yet receive a relatively poor return to society for the investment. I've always considered the United States to be a special exemplar in the world for how just societies ought to serve the body politic. When those aspects of the common welfare deteriorate so that only the more privileged members of our nation eventually will have the health care a just society should provide, then we're failing our own principles.

In my reading of what this country is about, under our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights as well as a progressively evolving "generational compact," to use James Madison's term, we should be a "WITT" nation -- we're in this together -- and not a "YOYO" nation -- you're on your own. But then again, you're entitled to your own views.

Readers are a gift. Especially those who disagree. Thank you.

Denton is the former editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times. His column appears in the Sunday edition.