Of all the responses I’ve gotten since I became a full-time blogger in the fall of 2012, two of them stand out for me.
One of them came from a friend and former colleague, who told me that the blog proves a theory he had about me when I was writing editorials for the Amarillo Globe-News. His theory was that “you didn’t believe most of what you wrote” while working for The Man.
The other response came just recently from someone I know less well, but someone with whom I had a professional relationship back in the day. This fellow, a lawyer and a former judge, told me that my “blog postings have revealed a side of you I never knew existed.”
I consider both responses to be compliments. They certainly are discerning.
Of course, High Plains Blogger has produced a lot of less-complimentary responses from critics. Some of them are actual friends; others are “friends” who read the blog on Facebook or Twitter and are individuals with whom I barely know — or not know at all.
What the blog has enabled me to do, of course, is speak for myself.
The Globe-News has a long-standing conservative editorial policy. When the former publisher interviewed me in late 1994 for the job of editorial page editor, our conversation turned to the paper’s conservative editorial outlook. My boss knew of my more progressive personal philosophy and I told him there were some boundaries I couldn’t cross.
He hired me anyway, but stipulated that I had to follow the paper’s conservative tradition. I agreed to do that. I was glad to do it, with one provision: that I be allowed to speak more independently with my own voice in a signed column. We came to a meeting of the minds.
But I always felt a bit hamstrung even with my column. I didn’t want to veer too far into the ditch on the left-hand side of the road. I managed over the course of nearly 18 years on the job to push forward a more moderate personal view while expressing the conservative view of the newspaper.
That tour of duty ended on Aug. 31, 2012.
I began blogging almost immediately.
Frankly, the blog has given me a sense of freedom that I’ve found invigorating. I’m able to speak my mind without worrying about the consequences of angering an employer. These days, the consequences come from angering some of my actual friends who might hold different points of view.
However, I am happy to be unfettered, unchained, unrestricted, unencumbered, unshackled and whatever “un” word you can come up with.
As for working for The Man and speaking anonymously for the institution that paid me a decent salary, I refer yet again to something another friend and former colleague once told me: If you take The Man’s money, then you play by The Man’s rules.