Understanding Both Sides for Your Writing: An Example
In my last post, I discussed how understanding both sides of an issue will help make your writing stronger, even when you are taking a side. I also promised to provide an example of how it can be done, so here we go.
There are many hot-button issues in the United States where each side has very strong opinions, and debates over them can lead to an immediate impasse or inflamed tempers. I am going to avoid those and go with one that is only top of mind when it is impacting your neighborhood: zoning.
Basically, zoning is a way for cities and towns to manage how their land is used by designating different areas as zones, with each one potentially having different laws and regulations. For example, some may be designed to be business districts, while others are set up to be residential areas. In addition, certain zones may be required to have a certain percentage of land designated for parks or low-income housing.
Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Tip O'Neill famously said, “All politics is local,” and the issue of zoning is about as local as it gets. Proponents of zoning will often cite its benefits, like orderly and organized development and community planning, as well as public health and safety, and inclusiveness.
Opponents will often point out the byproducts that zoning brings, such as limited housing supply, the environmental issues associated with urban sprawl, and restrictions on property rights and protection. One other issue with zoning that deserves its own sentence is that many laws were historically designed to strengthen socioeconomic and racial segregation.
If you have ever lived in a municipality, you have seen various issues regarding zones and the different views that people have. Today, there are countless Facebook groups and pages with people voicing their concerns, and sometimes they can get inflammatory.
Let’s say you are in a neighborhood that is facing a zoning issue that will impact you, and you have an opinion on it. And even though social media does not always paint this picture, the people who see things differently are not evil or scum. They are your neighbors. Understanding why they feel the way they do will help you form your argument. Whether you want to give your kids access to a park they can walk to or are a caregiver and worry that the new law will make it impossible to build a living space for an elderly parent, being able to write a piece that takes other opinions into account and still expresses concerns will make for a stronger argument. It may even lead to a different solution. Plus, if you find out the law you are advocating for helped create longstanding inequality in your community, you may change your mind.
That being said, do not expect everyone to read what you write and respond like the teacher in
Ralphie’s dream in A Christmas Story. No matter how cogent your argument is on zoning or why you want a Red Ryder BB gun, there is always going to be someone who responds with the proverbial, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.”
If you enjoyed this piece, you might also like my earlier blog on how learning to play an instrument can make you a stronger writer because sometimes the rhythm behind the words matters just as much as the words themselves.
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