What I miss the most about weekly column writing is interaction. I miss the connection, bond if you will, with readers.
I have a folder full of thank you letters, cards and e-mails thoughtful readers have sent to me. It warms my heart to know something I created has touched another human’s soul. A columnist knows he or she is doing his or her job, if a reader takes the time to write. And, for a reader to write takes courage — a reader, after all, not a highly skilled and lowly paid writer.
A good column isn’t about truth, justice, ethics or anything regarding sensible tone. Nope, a good column does one thing and really only one thing: it evokes an emotional response from the reader. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good bonus if a column does something more like raise consciousness, stir debate, inform and or entertain. But, that is extra good which can come from a column.
A good columnist wants to get under folks? skin. A good columnist wants to make you smile and laugh, cry or get angry. A columnist feels a sense of purpose when he or she knows they — because of the way they place words together — are being talked about (or thought about). It is not a black or white issue. It’s not that you absolutely love us or hate us. It’s simply that you (the reader) ‘anything? us.
We of the columnist stripe crave this and I am sure it’s some sort of pyscoanalizable obsessive disorder. (That is neither a good or bad thing, just an observation.) Once we have got you emotionally involved. we’ve done our job.
I haven’t written in a while, but I was at least able to connect with one person — to get her emotionally involved with me, and to write. The stuff in quotes is a column I penned about Oxford being a better place because of the Oxford Leader. I don’t know the person’s full name, so I won’t use it. Here’s the connection I made Good Friday morning.
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(Don) You may want to look up your metaphors that you are using before ignorantly throwing them around . . .
‘I am sure King George didn’t like the tone of the Federalist Papers, or Common Sense either.?
Sure he probably hated Common Sense, which was a direct attack against the parliament, but he certainly gave less than a thousandth of a (cuss word) about the Federalist papers, which dealt with the interpretation of the Constitution. The only people that really cared about the Federalist papers were the Federalists, Anti-Federalists, and the aware United States citizens.
I expect that in your next publication you ‘admit? the ‘factual error? and ‘re-report it.?
Also ‘Tone is tone?: Tone is the feelings and emotion inferred and derived from a literary work. (Note ‘inferred? and ‘derived.?) Tone cannot be concretely determined without it being stated outright. Even a single word can be interpreted with a different tone. Ex: Read this with different inflection (that means stressing of the words in your reading level) — I was driving behind your mom’s 1991 Buick.
Note the subtle tone difference caused by different inflection?
And I’ll even put my name out on this, I don’t think that should qualify someone as a leader, though. Hell, the homeless guy on the corner of M-24 and Drahner can put his name out there. Does that mean he is fit to be a leader?
Love Kisses and Ponies,
C
P.S. the point of a newspaper is to educate the average citizen on the current events of local to global happenings. What the Oxford Leader is doing is providing a narrow view into the local happenings, including ‘bashing? the local schools (which, if you don’t notice, tend to take up the majority of the valid stories in your newspaper). If the newspaper were to correctly follow basic ethics, it would provide at least both sides to all issues allowing the citizen to choose themselves.
By providing a one-way explanation for something, the average citizen will accept it.
The average person has difficulty thinking for themselves. By writing a biased paper, you are not making people think, you are doing the exact opposite.
Have fun in hell 🙂
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I think she got her point across quite well, don’t you? Whilst there is a lot I could write, I think the e-mail speaks for itself. And, in some perverse way, I feel good.
I have, albeit rustily, done my job.
Send your comments to don@dontrushmedon.com.