By Mary B. Killeen
“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
Thomas Jefferson
I want to register a protest, but I don’t know where to begin to set the world straight with my unhappiness. I am profoundly upset over the new policy of mailed vs. delivered newspapers. I am referring to my specific newspapers: the Detroit Free Press and the Livingston County Daily Press and Argus. For the last month I have been paperless every morning. Rather than my daily walk, or, depending on the weather, drive out to our mailbox on the road, I have had to suffer without my paper. Oh, it will come eventually, but that is no comfort. I want to read it with my breakfast, or at least lunch!
I have not heard of any protests about the new mailed policy anywhere, certainly not in the newspapers. Is no one else upset? Even the opinion section in the Sunday paper, small as it is, has not logged any upset letters, but of course, they wouldn’t being the source of my anger. How did we come to this? Benjamin Franklin would be angry too, but it seems no one else but me is miffed.
The worst part is that I have no reliable timetable for the appearance of my newspapers’ eventual arrivals by US mail – eventual means anywhere from two to four days after publication with no rhyme or reason on timing. A days-old newspaper wrapped around the latest mail is a miserable substitute on any day, but a predictable allotment of days would be helpful.
Lots of implications here, people. First, I won’t be giving any Christmas money to a kind newspaper delivery person this year. I had her phone number in my cellphone based upon her request to call her before calling downtown to complain if she was running late. I haven’t worked out my Sunday mornings yet either. My routine was to retrieve the fat editions early before my first TV program at 9 a.m., The Sunday Morning Show on CBS. Now I have to suffer with no paper to read to lessen the pain of the commercials
Well, looking on the bright side, I do have the reliable delivery of my Fowlerville News and Views actually delivered to my mailbox by a person on early morning Saturdays, like clockwork: my type of newspaper delivery! Though I don’t live in Fowlerville, I appreciate their actual newspaper. Also on the bright side, I do receive the emailed delivery of The Livingston Post. Still not the same, though.
So, what is the world coming to? My mother, a real newspaper aficionado, always expected me to read the daily newspaper and be up on the latest stuff. Sorry, Mom, not my fault. Seems like folks are listening to podcasts for their news, which is not as much fun as tossing each well pursued section on the floor to the pile by my chair and moving on to the next section. My routine was to sort the sections into main news, local news, obits, and only the relevant comic strips in the sport section. Now, I just dive in since my routine is upset.
Another problem is that I am always on the lookout for newspaper articles for my grandson who is a city planning student in Chicago. He gave me a list of his top topics and I cut them out carefully with the date and page numbers so he can reference the article properly. I mail him a bunch every two weeks or so hoping he and his significant other will consider moving to the city of Detroit for a job! Now he has come to expect some delayed news in my Chicago-bound U.S. Mail items.
At my advanced age, I don’t like change; really, only babies with wet diapers do. Nonetheless, since I am not in charge, I decided to accept the change to mailed newspapers and continue my subscriptions, at least until I can learn about podcasts.
Mary B. Killeen, RN, PhD, and her husband, Tom, have lived in Marion Township for 34 years. Killeen retired from U of M-Flint and volunteers for the Livingston County Health Department
