A week ago I received an email that has apparently been going around for more than ten years about a reporter, Charley Reese, who is now finally retiring (funny, since he retired from this column on July 29, 2001). He was a political columnist for the Orlando Sentinel and this email states that this was his final column with them.
The article is famously titled "The 545 People Responsible for all of America's Woes." You have probably received it in your inbox a time or two. Of course the version you received was most likely fake or altered from the original and looked something like this.
I read this version and it seemed to me a big load of something, so I had to check it out. Sure enough, with a little help from my friend Google and a wonderful break down of this email by Russell King, I found bunches of info on Charley Reese and this famous "last" column. Except this wasn't his last article. This article, according to the Orlando Sentinel, was written on February 3, 1984 with Reese making a variation of the same article in 1995.I am not taking issue with Reese's original. I think that he had the right to feel and think any way he wanted. As a columnist he had a duty to write what he thought and felt. He was not, after all, a journalist. Columnist = subjective. Journalist (should) = objective. In fact, as a rant, I think it was beautifully written. I love rants and railing against the system. People will agree and disagree with whatever you write, just be true to yourself, I say.
What I take issue with is the idea that 545 people are actually responsible for an entire country's problems. Give me a break. Where is the accountability? I also take issue with the added little bits of trite and untrue poetry, the tax list, and misleading comments that someone added to the beginning, middle, and end of Mr. Reese's work. I especially take issue with the 100 years ago ideal that the alterer seems to have in his or her head. Ideal for whom?
