Chapter 1

A person who is in a management position will periodically be faced with what can be called problems, challenges, or situations, which need to be handled and resolved. This currently was the situation Stan Wright, a newspaper editor for an Austin, Texas newspaper, was faced with that required action on his part. He was giving considerable thought as to what he should do to solve a problem.

He knew this current problem was an offshoot of what had originated close to two years ago when he received a phone call from Heath Sludger. Heath was the managing partner of a large investment firm that owned several businesses. One of the businesses they owned was this newspaper which caused Stan to pay close attention to what Heath said.

After some pleasantries were exchanged with Heath asking how things were going, he explained the reason for his phone call.

“I am aware of someone who wants to write a newspaper column. That means I want to have her column published in your paper. She is a first-time writer, so she will probably need some editing help in writing her column.”

“What does she want to write about?”

“Anything and everything, whatever is on her mind.”

“You are the boss, so whatever you want done will be done.”

“One more thing, she doesn’t want it known who she is, so she will use a fake name. You need to protect her identity. I won’t tell you what her real name is, but the name she will use in writing this column will be Bonnie Anderson. The name of her column will be “She Stirs the Pot.” That will also be her email address by adding the email server to it. She prefers you set it up so she can dictate her column and have someone transcribe it. Whoever transcribes it needs to be told the need for confidentiality.”

“I will send her an email on how to dictate her column. Do you know how often she wants to write and how much she wants to get paid for doing this?” said Stan.

“I think it’s Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday for writing, and she wants the money you would pay a columnist for doing this donated to charity. This is just something she has always wanted to do.”

“Okay, I understand, “said Stan and confirmed that he would make the necessary arrangements before the call ended.

He couldn’t help but think about what could happen in having this conversation with Heath. Any amateur writing a column three times a week that would be published could be a downright disaster, let alone an embarrassment for the paper. Heath was the owner of the paper, so what he said goes, but Stan thought he could only hope and pray, Heath knew what he was doing in making this request.

After emails were exchanged on how to submit the columns, the columns started coming in. A separate phone number had been set up for Bonnie that she could use to dictate her column.

Stan had explained the situation to Linda Cummings, who was his best transcriber on staff and an excellent column editor. He told her after transcribing the column to correct any grammar and composition mistakes. He was doing what he could do to comply with Heath’s directions, and at the same time, he was trying to help Bonnie in writing her column.

As it turned out, Stan may have been overly concerned about the “She Stirs the Pot” column. The columns submitted were of good quality and were on a variety of topics, but most of them were on politics. In other columns, Bonnie wrote on travel, restaurants, and several other topics. Some of her columns were in response to the emails she received from readers since her email address was listed at the end of her column.

Stan would say that Bonnie was rather frank in what her opinions were, and she was more opinionated than their lead columnist, Paul Conners. Stan was resistant to having other columnists give these strong opinions that Bonnie was stating in her columns. The offset to that was that most of the readers seemed to like having someone writing a column in which they told it like it was. That is not to say the readers all agreed with Bonnie all the time. Some readers didn’t, but most of the time, the majority of the readers did agree with her since she pulled no punches.

He remembered a few of her more controversial columns. The one where she said she was not a fan of the proposal to give reparations caused several readers to respond negatively. She started by reminding the readers of the lives that were lost to end the practice of slavery. Bonnie stated this country was the land of opportunity and cited as examples the legal immigrants who came here after World War 2 from Europe, along with the Asian families who could not speak the English language, yet had managed to have successful lives. She named several non-white people that have become billionaires. She finished by saying that people only have themselves to blame if they don’t take advantage of the fine education system this country makes available to them. Education is power she said. She ended the column by saying all people need to make money the old fashion way, “they need to earn it.”

When her columns on politics centered on Washington, she was equally critical of both parties, but usually, the party in power received the brunt of her fury. In other columns, she wrote about open borders, national debt, high inflation, and the rush to go green. One column on citizens who didn’t go to college paying with their tax money for the college loans of those who did go to college and now are attorneys and doctors, she said, bordered on lunacy and was a feeble attempt at buying votes. She later followed up with another column on the same subject when the Supreme Court agreed with her and issued its ruling.

In another column, she asked how is it that politicians who go to Washington that are of meager means manage to become multi-millionaires in a short time? Politicians that are advocates for socialism while owning three homes and charge one hundred dollars a ticket for people to hear their speeches, she said, only shows they are speaking out of both sides of their mouths. Certain politicians at one time wanted to raise the taxes on millionaires, but now that they have become millionaires, they only want to raise the taxes on billionaires.