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Michael McLeod
MM #1:
I would say that it (the story I posted about nukes) is pretty much objective reality.
Your critique makes it sound like it was a subjective column, perhaps even an unpatriotic one.
I disagree. It was a news story and it covered the global waterfront. It seemed to me to be a useful, engaging writing strategy to bring it all home with that last line. I saw a fact, no "broad supposition." This isn't somebody else's problem. It's a problem for all of us. We've lived with it so long we are inured to it. As a writer I appreciate stories that wake people up. Overall I thought the article was informative and fair -- and it was about a subject that scares the hell out of me and I would assume scares the hell out of us all and affects us all. I think your patriotism was misplaced in that respect.
I hadn't thought about nuclear holocaust and the fact that we now have the ability to eradicate ourselves for a long time.
We -- meaning our generation - won't be around much longer, but I think about humanity and where it's going in the long run - partly out of curiousity, partly out of compassion for our ilk.
Anyway I just wanted to say you characterized the story unfairly. I mean what was the writer supposed to do, finish with a "YAY! USA NUMBER ONE IN THE SELF EXTINCTION GAME!!!
There is a little wiggle room, even for hard news writers, when it comes to injecting a bit of subjectivity in a news story. But in this case I do not think that was overdone. There is plenty of flat-out information and plenty of space for readers to digest that information and make up their own minds. That's a long, ongoing balance that journalists weigh when they write a story. You don't want to come off like a wooden stick figure; you want to sound like a human being -- and not a needlessly intrusive one. I'd say the writer in this case did that.
In all honesty: When I write I like to think I give people something to think about. I'm not all that attached to what they think, as long as it's logical, or an expression of faith. Along those lines I do appreciate the fact that you included an appeal on our behalf to a Higher Power in your message.
And by the way: For all we know the writer shares your faith. However, the writer has to bear in mind he or she may have atheists in the reading audience. Or that they are foreigners who might be pissed, as you are, to have their country listed as one of several who are on the verge of testing nuclear weapons again.
It's a free country. Have to bear that in mind when you are writing, in this case, for tens of thousands of readers.
Anyway: Along those lines believe me when I say I hope your hope is justified.
As for you, Dan:
FACE LAST!!!!
Did you ever play that as a kid? For some reason it just came back to me.
It's so bloody hot down here and I just made the mistake of tinkering with the trees out back in the hot sun so I hope I am making sense and am not on the verge of stroking out.
MM#2
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TGIF
