Editor’s note: Dan Shannon is the second of a new crop of columnists writing for the Courier-Herald on a monthly basis for the next year in order to elevate new and diverse voices in our community. His column series, “Smartest Person in The Room” will be published the second week of every month.

On my first day of law school the torts professor walked in, assumed a scholarly pose and said, “You are not here to learn the law as much as we are here to teach you how to ‘think like a lawyer’ ” (and whether that is good or bad depends merely on a matter of perspective). That first day I did not quite understand, but after the three years, the reading of thousands of cases, and final success on multiple state bar exams, it became clear that what was intended was one long extended course in critical thinking. I don’t think I ever looked at the world around me in the same fashion again.

It’s a running joke (not woke) among counselors of law that those who possess that rite of passage entitled Juris Doctorate are the “washed” while all others fall into the category of the “unwashed” in reference to the former’s newly achieved (more likely perceived) intellectual horsepower. The running joke is, however, that after brushing elbows with fellow lawyers within the confines of the legal system day after day, a practicing lawyer requires a good shower to make you feel clean again.

In law school you are exposed to the Socratic method of instruction which Wikipedia defines as “a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions.” In short, it is to peel the onion, layer after layer, to remove from the subject of the query any form of presuppositions, prejudices, predispositions or faulty reasoning to reach an underlying kernel of truth; where the rubber meets the road.

Critical thinking is important. It is to me. It should be to you. In fact, with the present times of talking heads spinning the news, weaving a sordid web of intricate half-truths (and sometimes no truths at all) while failing to report actual news but instead, pushing an agenda, it is ever more crucial that you and I think for ourselves, do our own research, read the original sources and work to peel the onion to decipher truth based upon rational thought and reason.

And that is one reason why I accepted the Courier-Herald’s invitation to present my efforts to peel the onion on pertinent issues upon by which we are deluged, every day, like a roaring tsunami ripping and tearing at the very social fabric of our common existence and ripping our country apart.

I intend over the next 12 months to present you, the reader, with my take on newsworthy issues which affect our daily lives. And yes, it will be my truth, but one based upon my own daily grind to find answers among various and competing interests.

I have been told that you cannot pound an issue so flat that it won’t always have at least two sides, a “yin” and a “yang,” a “for” or “against” with capable opponents advocating for either side. I fully expect that I will have my detractors — it’s what makes for a good debate and it used to be the American way; not so anymore.

Nowadays, in the age of social media, if someone does not appreciate your communication, like a submarine, they rise up, surface and launch their cutting salvo and then retreat to the hidden depths of anonymity under a webname such as “Nuke45.”

I have nothing against rigorous, yet civil discourse, based on reason, logic and the factual record. I do, however, cringe when those who lack sufficient ammunition to enter into an intelligent discussion let their emotions get the better of them and instead digress into such sophomoric (a word of which I recently became acquainted) name calling as: bigot, ethnophobe, homophobe, racist, misogynist, idiot, emotional jihadist (a new one to me), or the ultimate insult, surmising that I am not “woke” enough.

In fact, you might get favorable betting odds in Vegas on the over and under on how many weeks it will take before some woke individual demands that the Courier-Herald remove me and my column and send me to the dark utter depths of the dustbin of history.

As a matter of point, intrinsic studies and common sense suggest that it has gotten so bad out there that many people will not say how they truly feel or put to words how they think because they are afraid of losing their jobs, being demoted, having their computer hacked, being flogged on social media, being picketed, having their cars keyed, the children punished or being left off their very own sister’s Christmas list. Yep, merely expressing your opinion is getting to be a contact sport.

But like Captain Kirk, I intend to boldly go where many fear to go and examine in the next twelve months, hard cutting issues such as: The Destruction of Title IX in the Era of Wokeness; As Israel goes so goes America; Disorder on the Border; The National Debt; Keep your Misogynistic Hands off my Reproductive Healthcare Rights; The Carter Years and Groundhog Day: It’s déjà vu all over again; The Battle for the Blue: Law Enforcement under Attack; Goebbelization: The Public Funded Indoctrination of our Youth; The Great Race Debate: America is still the Last Great Land of Opportunity; Right Flight-Left Flight-Rich Flight-Poor Fight: Why wealthy Americans are leaving once Great Americans cities in droves in light of lawlessness and the abandonment of the rule of law, and, finally, “The Paradiseum Principle” which cautions us to not bring condemnation upon ourselves by those things which we allow and also known as “When those you do the most for appreciate it the least.”

It was during his trial for daring to challenge established and sacred principles held as essential truth, a proceeding which ended by him readily choosing death rather than renounce his quest for truth that the Greek Philosopher Socrates allegedly proclaimed that “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

I intend in the next twelve months to examine the trying issues of our times and present my thoughts to you. Buckle up – it’s going to be a wild ride.

Dan Shannon is a retired attorney at law and former associate professor of legal studies at the University of Providence (formerly the University of Great Falls) and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame (bachelor of arts), University of Idaho (J.D.) and University of Florida (L.L.M. in taxation). He can usually be found downtown playing chess at The Local, writing poetry or having the privilege of hanging with family and friends.