because my letter about those golliwogs has appeared on the pages of our state newspaper.
I know what is going to happen. Yes, I'll get plenty of support for what I have said. I will also get some angry responses from people who disagree. It is just as well I will be out today. The only people who have my mobile phone number are Middle Cat and the Senior Cat. The house phone can ring...and ring...and ring.
Over the years of writing letters to the press - and I have written a good many - I have had a number of phone calls. People are often supportive but I have also had to deal with some irate people who have strongly disagreed with what I have had to say.
"You are entitled to your point of view," I tell them. It often makes little difference. Indeed one man - I won't call him a gentleman because he wasn't - told me, "Well you aren't entitled to yours."
I even tell people, "I don't always agree with myself. I write things to make people think - think about other possible points of view."
"You were mentioned this morning Cat," a journalist once told me.
I looked at her in alarm and she laughed.
"Oh if there is a letter from you someone will say, "There's a letter from Cat. We know it means there is something we can use."
Someone, who was intending to write a book about people who wrote letters to the paper, once interviewed me about my letter writing. He wanted to know how often I wrote and how often my letters got published. I told him that I didn't write letters every day but that they almost always got published - or ended up being used by the person writing the editorial. The book never got written. Perhaps I put the poor man off writing it.
And today's letter is there to make people think - if they read the letters to the editor pages. It is there to put another possible point of view, one I hope is of support to both sides of the debate.
Today and tomorrow I will put my paws on my knitting when I get a chance. I will talk to people who ask questions - and, if anyone disagrees with me, I will tell them,
"You are entitled to your point of view - but please think about the views of others as well."
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2 comments:
I think the Letters to the Editor are usually the best part of the paper BECAUSE they offer so many differing views. My favourite part of the paper.
Keep on writing to the Editor, Cat. Yet another form of valuable public service you perform.
LMcC
I don;t know if it is a valuable service - probably more irritating. There are a couple of letter writers I really like. One is an elderly man who thought he would have to stop writing when he went into a nursing home. The staff have made sure he has access to a computer - so that he can keep on writing his brief but highly amusing letters. That is a valuable public service!
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