Tonight’s suggested theme for Stories on the Square Gwinnett – true personal storytelling, mostly
for adults, is black and white. I have
mentioned in Sharp Stick in the Eye my
delight in the color scheme of black and white for the month of January to
nestle nicely between the bright colors of December and the romantic reds of
February. There are so many objects that are black and white, along with the
concepts of black and white extremes – I thought the topic would make for good
storytelling material.
So then
I had to come up with a story too. Naturally, my mind went to newspapers – as in
“what’s black and white and red all over?” Answer – the newspaper, and red/read is a pun. Maybe convoluted, but
that’s the route I took to start thinking of personal stories that involve the
newspaper.
And I
remembered an incident from my youth. Mom had to drive to downtown Buffalo one
day. This was very unusual. I think she had jury duty – so that would explain
it. She drove into the city by herself and then parked in a public parking
ramp. When Mom got home, she was really mad. Apparently the parking attendant
had been rude to her. I don’t know if it was verbal abuse or perhaps sexual harassment
– at my age I would not have been privy to the details especially if the
latter. But she was mad.
So
angry that she wrote a letter to the editor of the Buffalo Evening News! Mom
was going to let the world know that she had been treated badly! She was going
to make some figurative noise!
I was
really impressed. My own Mom wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper!
And
what’s more, the newspaper called Mom on the phone!
They
thanked her for her letter to the editor.
And
then they asked her a question. If the matter she wrote about in the letter was
taken care of privately – it was taken care of – would it be all right if the
letter was not published in the
paper?
Mom
said that would be fine.
Mom had
affected a change by writing a letter to the editor!
If you
are like me, when you have children, you often hear a still quiet voice telling
you to be a good example. And lots of times you bend over backwards, expending
lots of energy and dwelling out of your comfort zone, to be a good example, and
subsequently you see your children not absorbing it. And other times you aren’t
even thinking about anything, just reacting, and that’s what sticks with the
kid! Mom writing a letter to the editor of the newspaper really got to me. She
wasn’t a rabble rouser – in fact, most of the time her advice to any of us was don’t rock the boat. But man, that
letter she wrote made a difference –
not only to the parking attendant and the parking company and the newspaper, but
to the daughter who saw first-hand that a person can make things happen!
002 20180102 Read All Over
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