By Ken Robinson

Managing Editor

I handed Deb a pork-filled tortilla, slathered with mayo and mustard the way she ordered it. She tore the top part of it off like a mother lion shredding a wildebeest. I raised an eyebrow. She glowered.

I threw up a hand. “It’s your food.”

She was sitting in bed, at 2:30, swaddled in a blanket because she was cold.

So I told her: “A thousand people just called me to say they liked my last column.”

She said: ”You mean one person called and you multiplied by a thousand?”

“Yes. But Dad said that is what you are supposed to do. When one person calls to comment on something in the paper, 999 thought about it but just didn’t follow through. That’s an old rule in the newspaper business.”

“Who was it,” she asked.

A woman, named ‘Jerry’  Or maybe ‘Jeri.” Anyway, she loves the paper. And  said I should write more often.

“That’s nice. Could you get me a glass of cold milk?”

“”I’m kind of busy…”

“Doing what?” Playing on your computer?”

‘Why didn’t you ask me for the milk when I went downstairs to get the pork thing for you?”

(No response)

“I actually got another call earlier and forget to mention it. It was from Harold, a retiree who lives in Des Moines. He handwrites all his letters,  gets someone to fax them to the circulation department, where Dave Kellogg, our circulation guy, photocopies and scans them and then emails them to me.

“Now I want a goodie.”

“You told me to stop bringing sweets into the house…”

“I know. But that pork thing was pretty salty and I want something to replace the taste.”

“I found an old after-dinner mint in my jacket from when we went to that Mexican place in September.”

“Yuck.”

“I’m not finished telling you about Harold.”

“Go on…”

“When I get the email from Dave, I know I have to keystrike the letter. So I always wait until the last minute.”

“Does this story get better?”

“Harold always writes passionately about current affairs. He is bright, lucid and ardent .”

“Sounds like the name of an attorney firm…”

“Right. So today he called to say he was not going to write for a while. He had come to believe his views were spit in the ocean, history and somewhat of a waste given what is going on at the national level.”

“What did you tell him.”

“Told him to keep writing. That we love to get letters and since the advent of the internet, many people choose to comment online rather than putting pen to paper. Taking time to write, even to a website, is an act of participation in democracy. It is not the presentation of your particular point of view that matters as much as you care enough about your community and our country to take the time to speak your piece.”

“That’s nice, honey.”

“I thought so.”

“You are a  nice person. Now, about that goodie…

You can contact Ken Robinson at Kenr@robinsonnews.com