(Image from The Globe and Mail)
Tonight I was catching up on the stack of Maclean's magazines and found myself enjoying Andrew Potter's opinion piece in the September 13 edition of Maclean's titled That Far Down, Who Decides What's Law.
I don't always like Potter's editorials, but I thought this one was good for two reasons.
1. It presented an educated argument.
2. It educated me, the reader.
Potter discusses the unfortunate situation of the Chilean miners that have been trapped 700 m underground since Aug. 5 and could be stuck there for as many as four months while they wait to be drilled out. He argues that they may have to form their own political system to mediate disputes that perhaps may not adhere to Chilean law because of their extreme living situation.
Potter supports his argument by outlining possible disputes the miners could find themselves engaged in (like the allocation of food to privacy procedures) and by comparing their situation to an interesting philosophical thought experiment (Philosophy: one of my favourite things to learn about!).
After thinking more about it, I realized that perhaps I like his opinion because it wasn't a strong political opinion, which sometimes turns me off editorials, especially when they aren't well supported.
The subject matter was timely, interesting and important, and Potter gave the reader a lot of things to consider in thinking about the issue.
So cheers to Andrew Potter for this piece. I think it's a good example of the kind of editorials journalism could use more of. It goes beyond basic reporting to stimulating the mind of the reader.
(Image from thestar.com)
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