Making friends, of a sort

I received this missive today, and while it’s hardly a welcome development to have someone turn his back on you, he did it in a civil way:

Mr. Warthen,
       This will be my last note to your newspaper. We’re not getting anywhere so I will bow out.
       I do thank you for communicating . . . . That is more than some newspaper folk do and even if we disagree, that’s our right, OK?

Thanks,
Irvin Shuler

I was just about to write back and say, sure, that’s cool; different strokes and all that … when I decided, just on a whim, to see what this correspondent had most recently had to say to me. I found that among my yet-unread e-mail was one he sent yesterday:

Why would "you" not want to talk about those n_____s brought across the
Atlantic by the damn yankee, money gruggers?    Were they "your" ancestors
and just how much did YOUR family make off of us?????? AGAIN ?????
Please,
Mr. Warthen……just get the hell out of our state….yes, b___h, leave this
state and YOUR
State Paper should be forgotten.
Remember……there was a "State Paper"
editor once that pushed a little too far and
got…..well….just what he
deserved.     He spoke against Southern Folk and got just what he
deserved.    He was killed………thank goodness !!!!

Irvin
Shuler……………..NEVER ANOTHER APPOMATTOX   !!!!!

You will now, no doubt, remember this gentleman from previous correspondence.

At least, as we parted, he was in a better mood. That’s something.

8 thoughts on “Making friends, of a sort”

  1. Weldon VII

    This raises an issue for me, Brad.
    If I sent you an e-mail, would you feel free to include it in one of your posts here?
    Would you ask permission first?

  2. Mike Cakora

    Weldon VII –
    Anyone sending an email to the editorial page editor at his official editorial-page-editor email address should consider the communication as one that may properly be published, no? Why else would one write? Unless of course one adds the caveat that the communication is not to be published or that one’s name not be used. I don’t see that in what Brad published. So if you email him, be afraid, be very afraid that he will expose to us all that which you sent him.
    The same applies to emails sent to others in the media at their official media email addresses, whether it’s C-SPAN, PBS, NBC, Rush Limbaugh, or Barry Linn. Unless you include some caveat, they’re entitled to spew forth your identity and communication if they so desire.
    If you used Brad’s personal email address, you might expect some degree of privacy. But I doubt that he or others at the paper would give out their personal email addresses for the simple reason that they are for personal purposes, not work.
    Communications with folks in other lines of work have different rules of etiquette — propriety? — but one should not expect that privacy be guaranteed. If I receive via my work email a rant from a coworker or some client, I may choose to forward it to my boss or other coworkers with a sarcastic comment, something I’ve gotten into trouble for because of the rules my employer has established for electronic communications. But it would be improper for me to broadcast on my personal blog communications received via my professional email or workgroup collaboration network.
    You should expect privacy when communicating with a counselor, shrink, healthcare provider, lawyer, accountant, pimps, and other professionals over personal matters. They are not in the communications / news bidness, but provide personal, private services.

  5. Weldon VII

    Mike,
    Should I e-mail Brad, I won’t be typing anything to be “very afraid” about.
    Thanks for your considered response, but now you have me wondering what I wrote that might make you think I would ever threaten anyone.
    “Why else would one write?” To affect what is being published without being published.
    That would be a neat trick for someone writing an editorial page editor, much moreso than for someone writing a news editor, but I bet it’s possible.
    In the meantime, Brad’s posting rants such as the one above strike me as provoking more risk than what little hay they make by publication on a blog.
    Of course, if you’re willing to throw someone from a train to make a journalistic point, that would go with the territory.

  6. Ready to Hurl

    Mr. Shuler is one of the few (admitted) members of the Pitchfork Ben Tillman fan club.
    Wikipedia’s Tillman entry includes:

    He was largely responsible for calling the State constitutional convention, in 1895, that disfranchised most of South Carolina’s black men and required Jim Crow laws. As Tillman proudly proclaimed in 1900, “We have done our level best [to prevent blacks from voting]…we have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it.”

    So much for Mr. Shuler’s enlightenment.
    Given Mr. Shuler’s statements, Brad should be more interest in Fred Monk’s account of the the last moments of N.C. Gonzales, one of Brad’s predecessors:

    Not much dispute exists about what happened:
    Gonzales [editor of “The State” in 1903]- a small, slender man – approached the corner of Main and Gervais.
    At the same time, [Lt. Gov. Robert] Tillman [nephew to Pitchfork Ben] and the senators crossed Gervais toward the Main Street corner that Gonzales was approaching. It was cold; the editor had his hands in his coat pockets.
    Gonzales stepped to the sidewalk’s inside to avoid the three.
    Tillman pulled the Luger and fired at Gonzales, just feet away.
    It was a quick move, with no warning.
    The editor staggered. He didn’t fall. An autopsy would find the bullet entered between his right nipple and naval, chopped through intestines and exited his left front. The bullet was later found on the sidewalk.
    Tillman kept his gun pointed at Gonzales, but didn’t fire a second time. He spoke to the editor.
    A witness, fruit stand vendor Arledge Lyles, was close enough to hear. He said Tillman said, “You will let me alone now.”
    Gonzales would later say, before he died, that Tillman told him, “I’m taking you at your word.”
    With the blood pouring from his wound, Gonzales said, “Shoot again, you coward.”
    Tillman wiped his pistol on his coat sleeve and walked away.

  7. Michael Rodgers

    Brad,
    Was Mr. Irwin Shuler writing on his own initiative or as an official representative of the SC Sons of Confederate Veterans?
    http://www.scscv.com/SCSCV_Staff.php
    I hope that he was writing for himself and that the SC Sons of Confederate Veterans will ask him to make a more sincere apology letter to you. In his letters that you have excerpted, he doesn’t come across very well, I’m sorry to say. I’m sure that the SC Sons of Confederate Veterans are a very worthy and honorable group, and I want to support them and their policy on hate groups. I know they love the CBF, and I support their strong devotion to it. I’m sure that they must be upset that the SC legislature is flying the CBF and making a mockery of the Confederate Memorial by doing so.
    I would like to learn about the official position of the SC Sons of Confederate Veterans. Please ask them to write in what their official position is. Please ask them kindly if they want to join with us to stop the Statehouse flying of the CBF. I would love to have them with us, so we can all work together to improve the Confederate Memorial and to get the CBF displayed in the State Museum.
    Relatedly, I have seen what I consider the offical position of the SC NAACP expressed by Lonnie Randolph. He was speaking about the CBF and he was quoted by Lee Bandy in The State as saying, “We support people flying it in front of their homes, in front of their restaurants and placing it on bumper stickers. [Sunday, 20 May 2007]” He went on, saying that that he wanted to stop the Statehouse flying of the CBF, and he concluded by saying, “symbols matter.”
    OK, well I’m interested in learning as much as I can about what all sorts of different people think about stopping the Statehouse flying of the CBF. So far, everyone seems to be pretty reasonable about this issue. In fact, I figure that everyone is in agreement on this issue. The only trouble is that people choose not to agree becuase they choose to start arguing about something else. Hmm.
    Thanks for all.
    Regards,
    Michael Rodgers
    Columbia, SC

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