Scott Cawelti

Here's a piece I wrote after taking a semester off writing columns for the Courier back in 1991.  The second half explains why I returned from writing twice weekly columns to writing weekly (Sunday) columns, which I continue once a month these days.  

Anyone who writes in public regularly knows that it gets in your blood, and you miss the regular challenges, not to mention the feedback, both yea and nea.   All right, maybe it's the attention.  As my colleague and friend Tom Thompson once told me, "You just like to see your name in the paper."   Aaagh.  The ring of truth.  

6-2-91 

So how free is America, really?

Not very, according to  recent U.N. Human Development Report.

The criteria used in the Report include capital punishment, torture and coercion, treatment of women, legal aid to the poor, and discrimination against ethnics and homosexuals. Measured by these yardsticks, the U.S. ranks thirteenth in a field of 80 countries.

Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, New Zealand, Austria, Norway, France, (formerly) West Germany, Belgium, Canada, and Switzerland--in that order--all rank as more "free" than America.

Does this mean that old glory waves o'er the land of the partially free? Does freedom only slightly ring?  Have we become one nation, under God, with just a tad of liberty and justice for all?

Come on.  Anybody can trump up a few criteria and draw outrageous conclusions. America may sit below Sweden, etc. in terms of U.N. criteria, but by other standards we're still the screaming eagle.

How about freedom to guzzle oil, priced among the cheapest in the world? Or freedom to continue testing nuclear weapons? Or export military hardware? Most countries aren't free enough to allow any of these.

Our most cherished freedom, though: guns. Nearly anyone who hankers to buy, sell, or even rent guns still finds America the land of the truly free.  Low or high powereds, short or long barreleds, manual or automatics, we got 'em.  If it kills with cartridges, it's for sale in America.

We may be thirteenth by U.N. criteria, but given more red-blooded standards, we're in a class by ourselves.

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                                               A Few Questions and Answers

--Where in the world have you been since December?

--Right here. Who can afford travel these days? Besides, there was a war on, making international travel seem foolish at best.

--Why weren't you writing columns?

--I needed a break. Besides, UNI granted me a one-semester leave to research creativity and finish a textbook. I spent my time reading, writing, talking to creative people, taking notes, thinking. Deadlines weren't on the agenda. I loved every minute.        

--So why are you writing for the Courier again?

--I missed writing for a real audience.  Besides, a few readers claimed to miss my column.     

--Like an old friend they enjoyed every week?

--Right.  Though I grant that some others won't feel quite so happy about my return.

--Like that doggy smell that lingers on the carpet no matter how often they deodorize it?                                    

--Uh, yeah, that's a fair analogy. Anyway, I try not to worry about pleasing everyone, as long as they keep reading.

--Will you still write twice a week?

--No. Once a week on Sundays.

--Will you keep attracting angry responses?          

--Good heavens, I hope so. As well as thoughtful, lively disagreements, not to mention supportive comments and suggestions.

--Why do some readers get so mad? 

--I've wondered about that. Sometimes they get mad at glaring inaccuracies, and correct me. Those are the responses I appreciate most.  Other times readers froth over my point of view. They think I'm a raving liberal lunatic. That's fine. It's one of the joys of diversity. A few people harbor free-floating anger, and they attack the first visible target. I try not to take any of this personally.

--Do those attacks upset you anyway?

--Not often. But I'd have to be made of stone not to feel something when verbally abused.  I answer most such letters, though, unless the writer seems out of control.                        

--Ideally, of course, you would get people to agree with some of your ideas, even though they don't go along with everything.