No time for partisan distancing

To Mark Young, the man who thinks “artsy-fartsy” types are responsible for the liberal leanings of Seattle [“Surrounded by liberals, tea-party group isolated,’ NWTuesday, Nov. 13]: Think about the qualities that artistic people share.

They are unusually open to experience, have deep feelings, are nonjudgmental, resilient and adaptable, able to manipulate information in new and original ways and tend to communicate with subtlety and nuance. These are all quintessentially human capacities and we all have much to learn from those who exercise them.

Young and other tea party folks quoted in The Seattle Times article might examine their own capacity for meeting the world and its various people with curiosity and joy. There is no time to waste on fear, hatred or other ways of distancing ourselves, not only from our fellow humans, but from our own best human selves.

— Roz Barnett, Seattle