Toward the end of my high school teaching career, a student came up to me and said his mother was in my class. "She said you were cool back then." That was a compliment, I guess. I was wise enough not to ask, "Hey, what about now?"

No, the question isn't completely hypothetical, but that doesn't make it any less unfair. If you want to test how committed the candidates are to a take-no-prisoners, Matrix approach, it's an interesting question, but if the idea is to see how they would act as Board members, you have to begin the question from the beginning of a Board member's term. You, of course, can have your opinions of Pam. I'm not stepping into the middle of the controversy between the two of you, however, unless I see a good reason to. So my lack of commentary about your last few paragraphs shouldn't be read as agreement or disagreement on that issue.

Our disagreements are around the edges, Pam, but still, you're right, we have no problem disagreeing with one another. But the other part this whole thing is, it has to go both ways. Progressives have to be willing to listen to conservatives, but they have to be willing to listen as well. Case in point: I was putting up Barber signs, and a Jesse Kelly supporter stopped and accused me of taking down Kelly signs. I hadn't, of course. He walked away in a huff, then turned around and said, "How in the world could you vote for Obama?" I walked toward him quietly and asked sincerely, "Do you want to have a discussion or an argument?" He paused about a second and said, his voice raised, "An argument!" That was the end of things, but I would have been happy to have a discussion about why I support Obama and he doesn't. Wasn't gonna happen.