Why Should You Read Me, Anyway?
Much less, subscribe? An attempt at justifying my writing existence
A few days ago, a reader asked me, “why should we believe the things you write about?” It was an entirely fair question. Many of you listened to my commentary on Michigan Radio for years, or read my weekly Metro Times column, and have seen stories by me in other media, from the Detroit News, where I was a roving foreign reporter for a few years back in the 1980s, to the New York Times.
With Frank Kelley, 2015
Some of you have read some of my books, such as The People’s Lawyer, which I wrote with legendary Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley, pictured above. or my national coverage of Dr. Jack Kevorkian in the 1990s.
Some of you also know that I was accused of harassment some years ago, something I maintain I did not do, and learned you cannot prove a negative. I have written and said all I wish to say about that, at least for now.
But many readers probably have no idea of my background, and so I think I ought to say this. I have been doing journalism in all forms since 1977, for most of that time in Michigan. I was covering this state before many of the reporters now in Lansing were born. That has given me understanding and insight few likely have.
I grew up in and reported from this state when it was one of the richest and most heavily populated states in the union, and when there was broad bipartisan agreement that education and the quality of life for all our citizens was important, even if there was disagreement on how to get there. I knew Governors George Romney and Bill Milliken very well (I did a eulogy at Milliken’s funeral) and know Governor Jim Blanchard better still. I remember an era when a Donald Trump getting elected to anything in Michigan would have been completely unimaginable.
In other words, I know and have seen quite a few things. I’ve won a few awards and can handle a few languages, even English. That doesn’t mean I’m always right. But while I may not be a great cook, I know what’s in the recipe.
I share my opinions in this forum, but the facts I cite are things that can be verified, and when I do make a mistake, I admit and correct it, and when I don’t know something I say so.
And while I don’t know how many of you find what I have to say valuable, I do know I appreciate the thousand or so of you who do read me daily, and hope you read Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Reich too. Plus lots of books.
And I am acutely aware that I don’t know enough, something I become more aware of the more I know. And I know also that life is to be enjoyed, and that the more you know, the more you can deeply enjoy it, and that we have a responsibility to try and make it a better world, because it’s really true that no one here gets out alive.
That, by the way, is all I wish to say and more than enough about me. Unless, that is, you want to talk about Australian Shepherds, but that’s a topic for another day.
Thank you.
Lowell, you absolutely made my day, and I'm honored you subscribed!
Jack, you have been a trusted source of information and analysis for pretty much the entire time you mentioned. I am glad that I had the pleasure of listening to you on Michigan Public Radio, as I can now read your columns in your calm, well-reasoned voice. Yours was the first Substack I ever subscribed to.
It is challenging to try and make it through day after day of American compassion, normalcy and prudence being tossed onto a madman's bonfire. I look forward to your comments every day, to counterbalance the depravity of the dying Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of our government.
Oh, what fresh hell is this?