Reader responses make writing a joy

I hope Gazette readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and were able to reflect on the things for which for they were thankful. I remain thankful for many things: My family, my friends; having a couple bucks in the bank; and the fact that if my Cyclones could only win a few games this season, at least one was against the Hawkeyes. (We’ve still got that.)

I’m also thankful that real avenues still exist in which authentic discourse can take place, and that it still matters to so many of you, including the tens of thousands of subscribers to The Gazette. We live in an era where communication has become so cheap – where even the most inane thoughts of any one person can be shared and viewed in seconds and debated and discarded in minutes. Yet many of you took the time not only to read my column, but also to sit down and craft a thoughtful response to it. Most of your responses were delightful. Some of them were…not. All of them, however, remind me of how important it is that forums for discussion in good faith are preserved – and that they remain local to our communities.

The biggest collection of responses my column received this year came after I wrote about President Joe Biden’s executive order to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans in late July. Many of those responses outlined readers’ feelings of resentment over what they felt was the rewarding – and continued enabling – of unwise decision-making. “I rarely, and I mean rarely, comment about something in the newspaper but I feel deeply about your column,” wrote a reader from Iowa City, who went on to detail the sacrifices she and her spouse made in order to afford their own education. They impressed those same priorities upon their two sons, who heeded the advice of their parents and worked all through college to pay their own tuition. The reader’s story was compelling. But it wasn’t unique.

None of the readers who shared their frustration with student loan forgiveness expressed any wish to see young Americans punished for the naiveté of assuming up to six figures of debt for an education that will never yield the income to pay it off. They also don’t wish to be liable for those decisions, or for young college students to remain so easily susceptible to making them. The resentment is felt nationally, but the stories that illustrate why are local.

Personal anecdotes go a long way in helping a person demonstrate their viewpoint, which is why I frequently opt to share my own – and why I’m so interested when my readers share theirs. In July, I shared that I’ve been prescribed opioid pain medication for years for chronic arthritis pain, doing so to paint a picture of the barriers that chronic pain patients face to obtaining their medications. In response, a reader from Marion wrote about dealing with their own persistent pain after two back surgeries in the 1990s. “People do not think much about chronic pain until it strikes them,” the reader wrote. “Then that's all they think about.”

Much of the feedback I receive from readers is that they appreciate the variety of perspective that my column adds to the fold. One might interpret that as “I agree with it, so I like it.” And in some cases, that’s true, but one shouldn’t underestimate the feedback I get from readers with contrasting political views. I had a very brief back-and-forth about education funding and student needs with another reader from Iowa City after I wrote “School choice failed because legislators failed” at the end of May. We didn’t really agree on anything, but our exchange ended with him writing, “I will continue to be a reader of your column as I find you to be honest and forthright.” That works for me!

I would encourage all readers not to treat the Insights section as either their political echo chamber or their political punching bag. Since my transition from contractor to Gazette staff, I’ve been copied, along with up to 16 other Gazette writers and editors, on 446 emails sent to date from one person at a rate of up to eight per day. They all contain some politically-motivated gibe directed in poor taste at a specific writer or a link to some partisan amplifier website about a subject that we would cover if we weren’t such a fake news rag. (It’s important for all 17 of us to be copied on these emails, you see, so we all have an opportunity to be reminded up to eight times per day how stupid the Democrats are and how The Gazette is a horrible dumpster fire of a garbage publication.)

After I had the gall to share that I vote Republican, another reader sent me a list of 12 different policy positions, all worded in a rather leading way, ranging from gun control to school funding to taxation. Her email instructed me to respond to each “with a simple yes or no with no further comment or rationalization” so I could apparently qualify whether my political views make me worthy of that reader’s consideration. I’m happy to engage with those whose views differ from mine. But as I explained to the reader, I don’t do cross-examinations. That’s not how this works.

That being said, most readers do find value in reading opinions – or even just experiences – that differ from theirs, which is part of what makes writing this column such a privilege. “While I myself am on the other side of the divide…” wrote a reader from Cedar Rapids. “An echo chamber helps nothing and no one. I have a feeling you and I have similar conversations with some folks in our own tribes from time to time.” She’s not wrong.

Some readers just flat out amaze me with their ability to find common ground, even amidst differing perspectives and experiences. After I wrote about mask mandates at hospitals interfering with medical care for some patients who can’t tolerate masks – myself included – a reader in Mount Vernon shared how, quite unlike me, she prefers to continuing to wear a mask due to her issues dealing with anxiety. Yet despite two radically different situations, the reader described the anecdote I shared of debilitating headaches as “visceral,” and my thesis – that refusing care to patients who cannot tolerate a mask may cause real harm to those patients – as “relatable.” How is that, exactly? “If I were told I couldn't be seen at the place I have gone for years, I'm afraid to imagine how that would trigger my anxiety,” she wrote. “Telling a patient to seek care elsewhere is inhumane and wrong.”

As one of the columnists, I’m supposed to be the one sharing intelligent insights with readers. (Or at least something that passes as such.) But readers have the ability to put their own brilliance into words in their own unique way. I hope you will continue to do so with your emails, your phone calls, your comments on social media, and most importantly, your letters to the editor. Putting things into words may be what I’m employed to do, but the honor of writing this column is one thing I will never find the words to describe.

Comments: 319-398-8266, althea.cole@thegazette.com

Opinion content represents the viewpoint of the author or The Gazette editorial board. You can join the conversation by submitting a letter to the editor or guest column or by suggesting a topic for an editorial to editorial@thegazette.com