Reflection: On readers responses to writing

Thursday, July 8, 2010
1:04 PM

Most of what follows was cannibalized/recycled from letters to friends, responses to blog comments, and previous blog posts from about 2 years ago.

I always believed in talking about "sex, politics, and religion- not necessarily in that order," and that it is important to speak the truth as you believe it. But this election (2008) has superheated. I never minded complaints about me or the occasional hate mail, but it got intense. People feel so passionately about their sides that they become angrier and uglier faster.

While other people may be hypersensitive and wrapped up in rancor, I'm probably culpable too. I'm very passionate about what I believe too, so no doubt my tone became more acidic and less light hearted. I had planned to go "cold turkey," and never post anything here if I couldn't write a weekly column too- but obviously I didn't have enough self control for that.

My dream was that being held to the discipline of writing a weekly column might someday lead to being able to write professionally full time. In my mind, blogging was extra, superfluous, a past time- column writing was the meat, blogging the side dish. If this is all I have, I'm just another prattling voice in the vast blogosphere, that hardly anyone ever bothers to read. In the PRESS, it was farm league, small time, but there were 4,000 readers- even if most of them disagreed with me and several of them thought I should be tried for treason.

I'm saddened whenever anyone tries to marginalize or impugn me because I share opinions which I have thought out carefully and hold because I care deeply about our country.

I didn't stop writing a column for the press because of a reader's tirade of a letter to the editor. I stopped because the whole climate and culture of the community where I live has been too polarized and too emotionally charged, and for the sake of my family and loved ones I felt that it would be better 1) not to contribute to that polarization and 2) not subject those close to me to the same resentment, indignation and ridicule which I became a target of because of my opinions.

Although, I will admit that I was getting a lot of hate email and negative blog comments from people and it all compounded on 8 rejection letters in a row from syndicates for either columns or cartoons- so I was both sick of putting up with people's crap feeling sorry for myself.

I wish I could stop writing the way that an alcoholic wishes they could stop drinking. I've tried to stop writing altogether and it's bigger than I am.