After all, that is what this page is about. It’s a place for the sharing of different viewpoints and learning about how others see the world.

But I also believe this page should be held to a higher standard than comment boards or social media. A publication like this newspaper has a responsibility to its readers to curate the opinion submissions it receives and have some level of accountability in what we publish.

It’s been an ongoing challenge for me to try to determine exactly where that bar should be set.

Just like everyone else, my personal views and experiences have shaped my opinions, and that means they must be right, doesn’t it?

Well, no, it doesn’t.

One of the most valuable characteristics of rational thought is that it can evolve and change as more information and perspective is gained. But to gain that perspective, we have to be open to examining things from different angles.

In the past few weeks, I’ve had some very interesting conversations with people who have very different viewpoints than I do. We may not agree on how things should be managed in our government or the economy, but unless we are willing to discuss those topics and be open to adapting our views, we will limit our own growth and our ability to work together.

This doesn’t mean that we have to agree with everyone. It never has.

I had the opportunity to visit Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, and Montpelier, the home of James Madison, which are located fairly close to each other.

I recall the tour guides describing how both of those individuals who had such a formative impact on the creation of the United States of America frequently had dinner parties where they invited others with differing views to sit around the table and talk politics and philosophy.

They demonstrated that they weren’t afraid of contradictory perspectives. They embrace the opportunity to have those discussions, even though there were strong disagreements about the best course of action.

I wish we did that more.

I have found that the internet and social media is an extremely poor substitute for actual conversation for a couple of reasons.

First of all, it’s easy to dismiss the humanity of someone who is just an avatar on the screen. So often I see things said that would never be said to someone’s face.

Perhaps even more importantly, those digital discussions eliminate a huge portion of communication from things like body language, tone of voice, eye contact, and sometimes physical contact like a handshake or a pat on the back. And no, emoticons don’t make up the difference.

Real human communication is so diverse. I think it is sad to see what we so often surrender in the name of convenience online.

I think we owe it to ourselves and to our communities to push ourselves to be better.

And this is an important time to think about it.

We are now about a month away from Election Day. It will be our chance this year to go to the polls and vote for the individuals that we believe will do the best job in the positions they are running for.

I think everyone probably has an opinion about who they will support and how they will evaluate the issues. Most probably feel like it’s obvious that their candidate should be elected and can’t believe anyone would see it differently.

Over the next few weeks, I hope we will carefully analyze our own opinions.

I think it’s important that we choose to be better than just making decisions based on political party, catchy, slogans, amount of publicity, or negative targeting.

I think we owe it to ourselves to look beyond those things and do our best to evaluate the candidates and the issues.

No candidate will be perfect.

Most issues have lots of nuances.

I’m a firm believer that anyone who tries to paint an election as right versus wrong is flat-out wrong and guilty of oversimplification.

The elective process is about examining the pluses and minuses, the costs and the benefits, and then making the best choice while recognizing the limitations inherent in a representative republic.

There have already been individuals who have submitted opinion pieces about the upcoming elections, expressing their views and concerns. As long as those opinions meet certain standards, the Daily Herald will share them on the opinions page.

You may find yourself agreeing, or disagreeing with the viewpoints presented, but either way I believe there is value and understanding where people are coming from.

I hope we never stop appreciating that even when we disagree.

Jared Lloyd is the managing editor of the Daily Herald and can be reached at jlloyd@heraldextra.com.