So I was picking up a cup of joe earlier this week when I hear a voice through the din of the caffeine grinder:
“Hey Lou.”
I think I recognize the face, but if you’ve lived through the ’60s you know not to trust your memory or a court-appointed attorney.
He’s smiling and that’s a pretty good sign that — notwithstanding some devious how-deep-is-the-rabbit-hole plot — he won’t pounce.
So I go to his table and shake his hand.
“I read your column,” he says. And his smile is still there.
I smile back.
“Thanks!” I tell him. Then I ask the tough question. “Do you like it?” It’s one of those questions that you’re really not sure you want to hear the answer to.
He pauses for a second as if to consider his options. I think of that Cape buffalo on the Nature Channel figuring out if fight or flight is the best option. He could pick a fight and say he hates it. Or he could slide by and say he loves it.
He comes up with a third alternative.
“I like it … sometimes.”
He laughs loudly and so do I. It is, from my perspective, the perfect answer.
When you write a column, oftentimes opinionated, the idea that everyone would like it, all the time, is silly. That shouldn’t be the goal. One week it could be pleasurable. The next week, painful. In other words, “sometimes” is the desired result.
I leave with my cup of joe and I nod to my column-reading friend.
It will be a good day.
ooo
The monthly circulation report is coming out and I pretty much know what it will say. There are two things you can count on after an election: Sheriff Garry Lucas will win and some folks just won’t like who we’ve endorsed.
And a few of those unhappy readers will leave us.
It’s not party-based either. This time it was more Democrats giving us the heave-ho because of our endorsements of Republicans Jaime Herrera and Dino Rossi. Two years ago more Republicans quit because of our endorsement of Barack Obama.
It should be noted that newspapers are pretty unique in mainstream media for voicing opinions. TV news, for example, rarely shows a voice. It keeps them boring but safe.
OK, I admit I actually heard an opinion on TV this week. A reporter had just done a story on road rage where a guy actually bumped another guy’s car.
The anchor was about to announce his … opinion. No matter how mad one might be, he insisted, do not bump another person’s car!
Now there’s some opinion. Way out on that limb!!
ooo
I kid my TV friends, but newspapers could choose to play it safe, say little or nothing, and continue on a white-bread approach. Or we could get up on the fence — sure, we’ll fall off now and again — and at least give readers something interesting to chew on.
For my cup-of-joe buddy, I suspect our approach works. He “sometimes” likes us. He sometimes doesn’t like us. But he can smile either way and stick with us.
For those who leave us, I respect them. But they remind me a little of that sandlot baseball kid. He was the one who brought the bat and ball. And if he didn’t get his way? He’d just take his bat and ball and go home. Game over.
We’re sad when folks just walk away when they disagree. But we feel it’s important to have opinions.
