Administration’s approach

invites all of us to contribute to the solution.

It is asking a lot of Ashe County to expect it to support a black Democrat elected president.

In the eyes of many Ashe countians, the Jefferson Post did ask that recently when we sought support for a special inauguration edition to the newspaper.

In fact we saw it as a real eye-catching piece that readers would not be able to avoid reading.

The plan was for readers to understand more about Ashe County history in relation to its African-American citizens and their history. The connection seemed to make sense because of the distance that race relations have come in the American South since the Civil Rights Movement and the days of slavery.

Jesse Campbell, with the help of several historians in the community, did a nice job of telling some unexpected facts about our area.

It was also the idea that advertisers could gain by the attention they would get by being viewed on the same page with the stories that everyone would be reading. More eyes on a story typically means more eyes on advertisements. That’s the theory.

But this is a conservative area and people are comfortable with their conservative ways.

Some rejected the idea of an inauguration special section with a laugh. They seemingly didn’t want to help celebrate a black Democrat being elected to the highest office in the land. Maybe that is because he is black, or maybe it is because he is a Democrat.

Or maybe it is because they don’t trust what Democrats stand for.

Others declined to support the section because of fear of being associated with it. They saw the business potential with having eyes on the piece, and they also felt great risk in being viewed as supportive of the new president.

Except for opposing a person for the color of his skin, we respect all those views. These are hard times and no one has the answers. We make no claim to. It is no time for risking alliances with any business partner or customer.

Those who are comfortable with the old way of doing things see that those old ways have worked for them. They can trust what they have seen.

In a way that makes a lot of sense. If it has worked in the past, it will likely work again, they think. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, they might say.

But IT is broken, and it needs fixin’.

Obama is offering a new approach to fixing the problems we face. The polices he is currently proposing are not the familiar ones we have tested over the last three decades.

The thing many people like about him is his willingness to admit the potential for mistakes.

The correction to our economic woes will be a work in progress that makes use of diverse ways of thinking. None of us is going to like everything he does.

Obama is inviting all of us to the table to contribute to the solution. That is a way of building consensus to actually get things done.