This past weekend, I stood at an I-5 on-ramp holding a “No Kings” sign. As the traffic light cycled, a motorcyclist stopped directly in front of me. He didn’t shout or gesture; he simply sat there, gently shaking his head, eyes fixed forward, pointedly refusing to look at me or my sign.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t the look of someone ignoring a panhandler; it was the look of someone protecting a worldview.<\/p>\n
In our current climate, we have become experts at curated isolation. Liberals often retreat into preferred newspapers and stations; conservatives often lean on social media and hard-right sources. We both depend on these bubbles to consistently inform—and protect—our existing views. This encounter reminded me of a story often attributed to Cherokee wisdom: the parable of the two wolves.<\/p>\n
An old grandfather explains to his grandson that a fight is going on inside every person—a fight between two wolves. One is the “Dark Wolf” of anger, arrogance, lies, and superiority.<\/p>\n
The other is the “Light Wolf” of peace, humility, empathy, and truth. When the grandson asks, “Which wolf will win?” the grandfather simply replies, “The one you feed.”<\/p>\n
When we refuse to look at one another, or when we consume only the information that fuels our resentment of the “other side,” we are making a choice about which wolf to nourish.<\/p>\n
If we want a different future, we have to start changing the diet of our discourse.<\/p>\n
David Wittrock <\/strong><\/p>\n Stanwood <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This past weekend, I stood at an I-5 on-ramp holding a “No Kings” sign. As the traffic light cycled, a motorcyclist stopped directly in front of me. He didn’t shout or gesture; he simply sat there, gently shaking his head, eyes fixed forward, pointedly refusing to look at me or my sign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3361,"featured_media":895021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1020,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-895020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","category-opinion"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/heraldnet.com\/2026\/04\/04\/letter-feeding-the-right-wolf\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Letter: Feeding the right wolf","url":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/04\/04\/letter-feeding-the-right-wolf\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/04\/04\/letter-feeding-the-right-wolf\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/04\/41983168_web1_260402-ADW-Letter_1.jpeg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/04\/41983168_web1_260402-ADW-Letter_1.jpeg"},"articleSection":"Letters","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"none"}],"creator":["none"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"HeraldNet.com","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-04-04T08:30:00Z","datePublished":"2026-04-04T08:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-04-06T23:05:15Z"},"rendered":"