Crosstalk: Working together can be messy

Sure, I was smart enough to retain enough of the cubicle wall between our computers to require any airborne objects being thrown at the back of my head to follow an arching, hard-to-connect trajectory. (So far, so good—she’s only hit me twice.)

And I modified all the warning labels on the single-edge razor blade boxes to read, “Keep out of reach of RaeLynn.”

When she says to me, “I hate you,” I mentally edit my first, second and third response and say, “I hate you, too.” Or sometimes, “Shut up, RaeLynn.”

Don’t get me wrong, I have great respect for her news judgment as an editor and her tenacity as a reporter.

It’s her tenacity in regards to the non-essentials—like telling me to tie my shoes every day, or clean up cubicle number four—that she starts to drive me nuts.

Why people think a person is in danger of tripping on their own shoe laces, I don’t know.

She also has the distressing habit of getting her own way.

I was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Crosstalk arena: I knew arguing with RaeLynn would be a cross to bear for sure.’

I said no. Absolutely not. She insisted.

RaeLynn likes “hot button” issues. She studies the U.S. Constitution and quotes the founding fathers.

She follows politics, has firm opinions of her own and glories in her conservative viewpoint.

My own political opinions are less logical, I suspect, because they are based more on my own experience than party lines. I try to decide for myself where I stand.

In most cases, I stand exactly opposite of RaeLynn.

Yet our most fundamental difference is not a political one.

RaeLynn scoffs at the idea of imagining a different world: It is what it is and you have to accept reality.

I refuse to accept that. For me, imagining what the world could or should be like is the basis for life itself.

How do we manage to work together? It’s a matter of respect.

I know how hard it is to do her job, and she knows how hard it is to do mine.

Our unofficial newsroom motto is “Small miracles performed daily,” a statement not of our divinity but the incredible difficulty of publishing a daily paper.

Only by working as a team—RaeLynn and I, reporter Neita Cecil, reporter and photographer Derek Wiley, sports editor Ray Rodriguez—can we succeed.

We’re all journalists, committed to doing our best in truth and fairness.

It doesn’t matter that RaeLynn is a Republican nut case, or that I’m a liberal [expletive deleted], which gives us the freedom to argue and fight, curse and throw things. It’s a battle, of sorts.

Although sadly, if my tied shoes and clean cubicle are any indication, she’s winning.

by RaeLynn Ricarte

Although Mark will tell you he is a “creative genius” who needs to spread papers and photos across every available surface to do his best work, there is a giant flaw in his argument — as there is in most of them.

The fact that he needs to search out a clean area to get work done is proof that his mind functions best when things aren’t cluttered.

So, if he mopped up around his desk, he might find it easier to pull his thoughts together (as I speak, Mark just called his cell from the office phone in hopes of locating it under one of his precariously balanced stacks of paperwork).

As an aside, when Mark’s phone rings, it sounds like an array of barnyard animals. I told him if I ever find out I’m the “Moo” or “Oink,” there’s going to be a problem. And by problem, I mean that I carry a really cool flashlight that is also a taser.

At one time, Mark had four cubicles filled with stuff (including a box of razor blades that worried me) as well as a cluttered back counter.

I nagged at him enough that he finally winnowed his territory down to two cubicles — and I agreed to just turn my head when I pass by those messy areas.

People ask how Mark and I work so well together given that we are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.

It really isn’t that difficult — we just have learned when to shut up.

Each week we select our Crosstalk subject by discussing the top controversial issues of the day.

If the conversation becomes heated, and Mark makes some snarky remark about Republicans or conservatives (not always the same thing), I know we are good to go.

Mark continually tries to convince me that he is not a true liberal, but he actually strays left of the left wing on many topics.

Like many liberals, Mark wants policies made to deliver social justice — regardless of the consequences in the real world.

At some point in our discussion, we come up with the Crosstalk question that we want to address and then we quit talking about the subject to avoid an actual argument.

Now I’m going to tell you another truth about Mark. He is prone to wander off in his thoughts and come up with a column that is totally different from the one we planned on. Often there are a few childhood memories shared, which is endearing —albeit confusing — or perhaps some reference to his isolationist lifestyle.

Seriously, the dude has a rattlesnake living in his side yard and he’s okay with that.

In actuality, Mark is a great guy. He remains unruffled while I am panicking about some deadline issue. He bails me out of technological snares on a daily basis (I hate computers) and does a lot of clerical work, such as sorting through hundreds of emails a day, so that I can concentrate on writing.

We have each other’s back and that, at the end of the day, is how you bridge an ideological divide.