Back Story 5: Odds and Ends

Actually I don’t really have any interesting stories left. So here is a wrap up of all my uninteresting stories. (Or a continuation of uninteresting stories, depending on how you look at it).

First: I think I got more positive feedback from this short letter I wrote in defense of DeRoo than from any thing else I wrote, including all of my long-winded articles. Maybe I should learn something from this…

Second: Shortly after the Jesse Jackson affair broke, Waddilove asked Bork and Buma for space to write an editorial on it. As soon as I heard about it, I asked Bork and Buma for space to write a response to Waddilove’s article.

I had assumed that Waddilove’s editorial would attack Jackson along the same lines that every other conservative commentator was taking, and so I planned my response accordingly. But Waddilove is nothing if not unpredictable, and his attack on Jackson was not what I had been expecting. I asked Bork and Buma to run my response anyway. I edited out any direct reference to Waddilove’s article, and so I thought maybe it could stand on its own. At the same time, however, appearing the week after Waddilove’s, it was obviously meant as some sort of response.

Like Giessel, Waddilove is someone I disagree with most of the time, but still regard as a good friend. I felt a bit bad that I had used his article as a launching point for going in a totally different direction, but I apologized to him over beer and chips at “La Cantina”, and I think he understood.

The following week, Bork and Buma received a response to my article, which made cursory references to my arguments, and then used my article as an excuse for going in another direction entirely. I don’t know if anyone reading this believes in karma, but….

The response, after criticizing me for moral relativism, criticized Jackson by saying that no other ethnic group in America has someone speaking out on their behalf, so why should the African American community have someone like Jackson?

The response was not very complimentary to me, but because I’m a big egotist, I encouraged Bork and Buma to run it for no other reason than it mentioned my name and referenced my article. Bork and Buma in the end decided not to run the article because they thought a third article on the Jesse Jackson affair was overkill, the article ignored most of my arguments and so didn’t make a lot of sense in context, and they felt the article’s vicious attacks on Jackson bordered on race baiting. And they were probably right. So the response to my response never saw the light of publication.

Third: I don’t know if anyone caught this or not, but I actually have two articles on the school voucher issue. Based on this you might think it’s an issue I really feel strongly about, but in both cases I ended up writing the article because no one else was on hand to do it. (Not that I didn’t mean what I said in the articles, it’s just not one of my pet issues that gets me really excited.)

Giessel wanted to do school vouchers as a crossroads piece. The rest of the boys were a bit ambivalent about the issue, so I volunteered to write our side. The following year, when Bork and Buma were editors, the voucher issue was on the Michigan ballet, and the issue was big news again, so they needed someone to write about it again in crossroads.

I agreed to do it, but wanted to re-run my piece from the previous year. I didn’t see any point in re-writing it, since I would just end up saying the same things anyway. There was a brief debate about the ethics of this, but in the end I got my way. I made a few small changes, like adding in some new information and arguments.
Because of the change in the layout of Chimes, I actually had less room than I had the previous year, and I was trying to fit in more information. So I edited out absolutely everything I didn’t think was important, like an introduction, a conclusion, and transition words.

The whole issue of school vouchers also reminds me of one of my favorite Chimes related stories. During the spring of my 4th year at Calvin, Klippe, who was going to be the editor in chief of Chimes the next year, approached me and asked me to be the Chimes perspective editor the following year. I was delighted by the offer, but had to decline because I only had one more semester left at Calvin, and that was Student Teaching. I told Klippe to get in touch with Bork and Buma instead.

But anyway, it is the first time Klippe and I have ever talked. In an attempt to break the ice, Klippe says, “I really enjoy your articles. I think they’re a lot better than the other side. For instance Giessel’s arguments against School Vouchers were absolutely ridiculous.”

“Well thank you,” I say. Pause. “Wait a minute, did you say ‘against School Vouchers?’”

“Yeah.”

“That was my article. I was the one who wrote against School Vouchers.”

“Oh.” Awkward Silence. “Well then I thought your arguments were absolutely ridiculous.”