Since I’m not, technically, an employee of the Record-Eagle, I am referred to as a contributing columnist. The distinction being that every other week I make this contribution to arguably the finest newspaper of its size in America. Aside from periodical emails from the editor that accepts my work I hardly ever have communication with the nucleus of our operation. Although the editor may, from time to time, edit columns, they don’t assign or suggest column topics so what you read here is 100 percent fresh out of this author’s mind.
Maybe, but only in rare instances have I opened an inbox or answered a phone call that led to anything close to … “about that last column, Rob, we need to talk …”
I love writing for the Record-Eagle, but what I really love is the two-way trust the paper and I have in each other.
Having said that though, the longer I exist in the realm of daily newspaper consumption the more I appreciate the readers that take the time to write to me back.
The convergence of a particularly salient or particularly controversial thought with a reader that is moved enough to take a minute to respond with their thoughts is as unusual as it is desired. Unlike social media, where responding is as easy as hitting the “comment” icon because you already are holding your device makes it easy. Sending a columnist a note often entails finishing reading the newspaper, remembering what the guy wrote on page three of the Body & Soul section, hunting down your phone or laptop, and finally typing out a responding email. That takes a lot of stars aligning, it’s a rarity, and that’s what makes them so precious to us contributors.
I completely understand that much of what I write here is void of controversy, void of argument and simply not worth getting agitated over. But every now and then I can be abrasive, witty or edgy. It’s those adventures in prose that I hope don’t go unnoticed. Writing can be hard, especially if the writer feels that they’re just shouting into the void. Begrudgingly, I get by the stretches that go “letterless” by assuring myself that those that do read this, occasionally, silently, smirk, nod, scowl or momentarily ponder, before reading on.
You may have missed it, but there was a letter to the editor in the paper recently suggesting that members of a particular political party had earned an unfavorable reputation because they wrote too many letters …“Ranting about everything under the sun is not a good look …”
I thank the writer of that letter because it gave me the spark to write this one. But to that writer, I also contribute a one word response — baloney.
Not “baloney” to the concept of writing a letter to the editor complaining that someone else writes too many letters to the editor, but “baloney” to the concept of discouraging writing letters to the editor in the first place. And I’m not talking about the political party, the topics that were ranted about, if they looked good or not, or the lack of sunshine in northern Michigan.
I remind you that my role in this paper is as a contributor. By taking the time to publicly express your opinion, in print and along with your name and address, is every bit as equal of a contribution and something that I encourage everyone to take time to do.