Mail Call

Part of my workday each day is dedicated to fending off the insane. This is not an employment function I originally envisioned as being particularly relevant in journalism, but I now realize the important role played by the insane in our society. The insane have a lot of time, or a lot of energy, or both, and this allows them to write a good deal. It's perhaps unfortunate that, given the bazillions of media channels available to us, much of what gets published gets there on the sole merit of being something that was written down (how else could I sell my writing?). But if that upsets you, you should consider how much of what is merely written doesn't even get published. Instead, it gets sent to me, and I have to read it.

Today, for example, I received a letter from this man offering to make "a very detailed case that the USA is a failed society." The letter was only a synopsis of the promised case, focusing largely on the problem of how we have forgotten our past. Case in point: "No one in the USA answers a letter anymore. They write back BUT no one responds to what I wrote to them about. It is as if each letter started the world anew."

Really, no one writes back? I am shocked.

So next time you're wallowing in self-pity over the poor quality of American journalism, pity me instead for having to read what doesn't even come close.