I’m disappointed that Dr. Muir feels as he does. I had conversations with him several times when he was the chairman of the history department at Austin Peay. I thought he ran a good department, although quite a liberal one. 

Most of the Liberals (capital L) I know are college professors or ministers. None of those I know well have any experience with the reality of life I have known. I used to explain to classes my credentials for teaching the subject, so my credentials for knowing something of my fellow citizens follow.

I was raised in a slum. As a child and youth, I carried packages of groceries to their homes for ladies in hopes of getting a nickel. I mowed lawns and worked cleaning up the school cafeteria for free lunches in high school. Attending college, I worked 44 hours a week nights and weekends through a combination of jobs. 

Following graduation from Harris, I taught in a downtown slum school. Once I complained to the Assistant Superintendent that I was being sent children from the reform school who were not in my district. He said I worked well with them. I visited my students’ homes and took them on trips, sometimes during the school day, sometimes on Saturdays. The one I remember best was the time I got 50 free tickets to a Cardinal baseball game. Forgetting the day, I made a date with a young woman I had wanted to take out for some time. When she asked where we were going, I said, “To the Cardinal game.”

“Great.”

“There is one catch; we are taking 50 children with us.” 

I never got another date with her. 

Thanks to the Korean War I have six months, plus a week, of front line time, first as a radio operator and then as a scout.  I saw quiet times and some very bloody action. At Harry we lost 2300 and killed an estimated 7000. It was a seven day battle. Combat taught me that you could find humor, joke and laugh in the worst of situations.

In all of these activities I met men and women from all walks of life with all types of personalities. Some were wonderful, some weren’t.  Most were hard working, honest people always ready to help someone in need.  I have had friends who were black, white, oriental and American Indian.  Race never seemed to matter in my relationships; for good or bad. 

As a licensed counseling psychologist I worked in the Adult Counseling Service at WashingtonUniversity. We served people from the community at large from all levels of society. My favorite was a toothless, black, retired washerwoman who looked like a retired washerwoman. She was an all “A” student. During this time I conducted individual, extra, volunteer work with those who needed it on my own time.

Leaving St. Louis, I went to the University of Alberta. Too cut a long story short, again there were all kinds who asked for some “free” counseling. It was at that time that I first became involved with the homosexual community and decided that all of those I knew were homosexual because of life experiences. 

Going to Drury College, I feared I might be losing touch with “real life,” called the County Mental Health office and volunteered to work Friday afternoons as a psychologist. It took them three weeks to accept. I called and said that if they didn’t want me, they should just say so. They responded that I had confused them, no one had ever volunteered before. I spent six years counseling there, mostly court referrals and graduates of psychiatric services. 

From there I went to AustinPeayStateUniversity where I continued the half day volunteer work at the Social Work Service. I also became Vice-President of the Board and directly responsible for supervision of the County Girls Home. Judge Catalano telephoned me at my office and said she heard I was the only psychologist in town who would work for free. Would I help? I did, for four years.  The only problem the board had was selecting a name. I suggested the Catalano House, since she started it.  I said we could call it the “Cat” house for short. When the judge finished laughing she turned that idea down.

Leaving teaching I went to work for the military, first as a test specialist, then as a psychologist and finally as a researcher.  My specialty was electronic intelligence and I had the highest possible clearance.  During all of this time, I did volunteer work, including work as a union representative and for EEO. 

My proudest achievement as a union representative was evaluating a case of sexual harassment and discrimination. After hearing the problem from the wife of a young soldier, my first step was to the commissary office where I photocopied several pages of records. The records later disappeared. When faced with the photostats, the director of the commissary decided to retire.

Most of my EEO work was done in Germany, in fact I did so much of it that my supervisor complained. Every recommendation I made was accepted. One resulted in a reprimand to a Colonel, another in the reinstatement of a young black ex-soldier to his job at the post office. A third led to the dismissal of a sex discrimination charge by a woman who was a GM 14, but thought she should become a GM 15 when transferred to a similar job in a different city. There were many others, but why waste your time?

The EEO office liked me because the ranks of the persons involved did not influence my efforts.  I investigated the facts of the case, located relevant evidence, and delivered them along with my recommendations. 

I should note that I also have a background in research and analysis. Five graduate courses in research and statistics resulted in my teaching statistics over a period of twenty years. In the years following my doctorate I took advanced mathematics courses, computer programming courses and a series of graduate courses on operations research and systems analysis.  The military considered me qualified at the GM 14 level in Operations Research and in mathematical statistics.  I was part of a cell established by General Thurman at Ft.Leavenworth to certify the research adequacy, statistical analysis and accuracy of final reports of major military research projects. During that period I spent most of my time at White Sands but had to visit and work at military research installations ranging from California to Maryland. Frankly, reviewing political speeches and newspaper articles for facts, logical inconsistencies and omissions is nothing compared to doing the same for two or three hundred page research reports on multi-million dollar projects.

And that is what I try to do in my essays.  I know a lot about people, and I know how to look for facts and logical consistency.  On a daily basis I read the Wall Street Journal, Google news, Drudge Report, various essayists and watch the evening news. At least once a week I read the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Probably the best of these is the Wall Street Journal, but some of its articles have flaws of logic and omitted facts also.

Dr. Muir mentioned that my last several essays disappointed him, so I went and re-read the last three. 

The diversity essay is based on facts.  You may not like them, but they are real.  I would like anyone to name me a nation in which there are people speaking different languages and obeying different laws which is a peaceful nation whose citizens respect each other regardless of differences. Please don’t mention Bosnia. The last article I read said it was falling apart; the Serbs and Croats hate each other and both were trying to eliminate Muslims. “Diversity” was not an angry article; it was an article of fear, not personal fear: with a bad heart and a broken chest I’m just hoping to make 80 – six months from now. No, it is fear for the country I love. The English language and the laws based on the Constitution have made this vast geographic section of North America the most prosperous and peaceful nation in the world. I hope it stays that way – I have seen what internal war does to a country and the remnant who survive.  Let us not permit the great god Diversity destroy that.

The second article was pure fun. Anyone reading it should recognize that. The fact that I made up some of the stuff, especially the “higher authority” paragraph should be obvious. Certainly it attacks Democrats, specifically Obama, Pelosi and some programs. So what? They absolutely control both Houses of Congress and the Legislative Branch. They have absolute power. They are the ones making all decisions and have been since Bush caved in to a Democratic Congress. Why criticize those who can’t do anything? At the present, Republicans are irrelevant.

The third article has a mistake in it. In one place I say black kale and in another black lettuce. Lettuce is an error. Two articles I read about the stuff, had a name I could neither pronounce, spell nor remember. One translated it as black kale and the other as black CABBAGE. Sheila thought the word “black” might have offended the readers. I thought it more likely that they objected to my suggestion that Michelle might fear walking through a black neighborhood. Hey, don’t blame me. It was Reverend Jesse Jackson who was quoted as saying that when he heard footsteps behind him when walking down a street in DC, he looked back. He said if he saw a white man, he relaxed. By the way, the Reverend Jackson is black. Actually, my article picked on a really stupid publicity stunt and an expensive one for the taxpayers. My major complaint in the article was with the news reporters. Why didn’t the major media report this farce? Remember the time the President Bush bought something in a grocery store and talked to the cashier about her job and her scanning device? It made every television news channel and all major newspapers. Reporters thought he didn’t know about scanners. They should have a minimum IQ requirement for reporters of at least the moron level. What was he supposed to talk to her about, international relations? But not a word on Michelle’s cabbage – see I got it right this time.

My bride laughed at me while I was writing this. She said, “You complain when you don’t get any responses or controversy, and now you complain when you get do.”

There are Internet articles on the same subject. Denver’s Rocky Mountain News is out of business. The Chicago Tribune has declared bankruptcy. The company which owns the Chicago Tribune also owns the Los Angeles Times, six other metropolitan newspapers and twenty-three television stations – all with financial problems. 

The New York Times is in deepening financial trouble. The Miami Herald has been put up for sale. The list goes on and on.  

The New York Time’s Richard Perez-Pena (October 28, 2008) reported that a survey of 500 newspapers across the country had a drop in circulation of 4.6 percent. Among the most heavily hit were the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Houston Chronicle, The Boston Globe, The Star-Ledger of Newark, The Philadelphia Enquirer, The Orange County Register and The Detroit News. 

Similarly, a recent article (21 Jan 2009) commented on the loss of readership by Newsweek and Time magazines. Newsweek has dropped its “guaranteed” circulation to advertisers by half a million, Time has dropped its expected circulation by three fourths of a million. 

If you examine these figures in a different way, they become still more interesting. While those paying attention to the news media have been declining, the population has been increasing.  Several years ago, a local newspaper publisher told me that newspapers made their money from advertisements, not from readers and that his circulation had remained steady. But the population of the town had increased from approximately 100,000 to 300,000. Looking at readership as a percentage of population, he was selling about 1/3 of what he formerly sold. The same is true on a national level. When the New York Times reported that a survey of 400 newspapers reported an average drop in circulation of 4.6%, did they mean 4.6% of the newspapers sold or 4.6% of the potential audience? There is a big difference. 

Murdock, the major newspaper publisher, has proclaimed that “… there has never been more hunger for news …” That is true. But we are not getting it.

Too often the newspaper articles are inadequately researched or give a biased, one-sided account of the news. The worst papers print articles which are misleading or completely false. Didn’t a New York Times reporter receive a Pulitzer Prize for a “factual” article which turned out to be pure (but politically correct) fiction? Other newspapers have been found to have similar, if less sensational, problems as discovered by bloggers and reported on the Internet.

 Unfortunately, the majority of this imbalance favors “liberal,” or socialist political goals. When are we to receive complete and balanced reporting?  

 I believe that people will purchase and read newspapers which print news that interest and affect them. 

Our local, small town, newspaper had an editor for many years who routinely reported on the school board meetings, what was voted on and by whom and on county and city council meetings. He also printed articles submitted by our elected leaders, both state and national, in which they explained how and why they voted on different issues. It also, of course, included death notices, court reports and sports news along with other local news. People purchased and read that newspaper. Now, following a series of one or two year editors, half of the paper appears to be dedicated to high school sports with a few articles on local news and it has had a serious decline in readership. 

It is time for the “major” newspapers to accept that they cannot compete with the Internet for major, national and international news. We get that faster – and more accurately – on the Internet than it is possible for them to print it. Such stories are reported on an hourly basis. However, there are many area happenings which people would be interested in reading, and, I believe, would purchase newspapers in order to get learn what is happening in their area.  This is, basically, what the Washington Post and the Washington Times do, it is just that WashingtonDC “local” news affects all of us. Papers in other major cities do not have their advantage, but they could still report incidents of interest in their areas. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch does an excellent job of this. 

Another action major newspapers could take would be to provide thoughtful and fair analyses of the news on their editorial pages, provided they have persons capable of this. As a daily reader of the Wall Street Journal, I often find it reporting on events which I read about on the Internet the day before. However, their balanced editorial page, presenting thoughtful articles, keeps me reading, and purchasing, the paper.