Chapter 4

In writing the column “She Stirs the Pot,” Noah could see that he was periodically hitting home runs as well as causing disagreement. In one column, he touched the third rail with the column being on diversity. Advocates of diversity said this is good for society. Noah agreed with them but pointed out that there could be reverse discrimination in promoting this program which these proponents omit to talk about. Discriminating to reduce discrimination is never a solution, he said.

He said if diversity was good for society, it should be good for professional sports where there exists an obvious disparity on many professional teams. We accept that sports competition is based on excellence in performance and that should that be the case in society as well. The most qualified person should be in a position because they have earned the right to be in that position.”

Noah finished the column by asking the question, “To those who advocate for this program, what type of airline pilot or flight controller do you want when you fly in stormy weather? One who is in that position because of diversity, or one who is in that position because they are the most qualified?”

Stan phoned Noah and told him he was getting ready to tell Noah that he needed to tone it down but now he wouldn’t say that. The reason was that he received a phone call from Heath Sludger, the managing owner of the paper, who said he enjoyed reading Noah’s columns and encouraged him to keep telling it as he saw it. Heath told Stan that he realizes Noah’s columns offend some readers but he thinks he attracts more readers than he offends.

That could be true Stan said, because requests have been made to him from other papers wanting to syndicate the “She Stirs the Pot” column. That is a decision he said for Noah to make if he wants that done. Stan thought Noah should do it since it would mean more money in Noah’s pocket. He suggested that Noah contact Paul Conners’s wife, Ellen Haddon. She is an attorney and she handled it when Paul Conner’s column was syndicated.

Noah thanked Stan for telling him of the newspaper owner’s backing. He also phoned Attorney Haddon and made an appointment to see her about syndicating the column.

Paul Conners was a lucky man thought Noah, when he met Ellen Haddon. She was smart and good-looking which to him was a lethal combination. He told her he was seeing her because there was an interest expressed in syndicating his column. She asked what column that was and when he told her it was “She Stirs the Pot,” she was surprised to learn that it was a man writing the column and not a woman.

He mentioned how that came about and asked her to keep it confidential. He said that meant for her not to tell her husband that Noah was Bonnie Anderson. She said she would do that because of the attorney-client relationship, but laughingly said, it was going to be tough. As to the syndication, she said she could handle that. The only problem would be in hiding Noah’s identity in agreeing to this syndication would be as to his getting paid, but she thought she could work around that problem. He thanked her and asked her to send him her bill for services when this was all set up. He said he could arrange the sending out of the final copy of his column after it is transcribed and edited.

Noah followed through on his plans for meeting Kate by doing some shopping at the pharmacy where she worked. It wasn’t till his third visit there that when he walked by the pharmacy’s counter he saw her there helping a customer. He could see that she recognized him. She gave him a little wave and asked him to stick around.

When she was finished with the customer, she asked Noah if he wanted to go to lunch with her. Of course he knew did, but he first went through the feigned act of looking at his watch to see if he had the time to do it.

Lunch turned out to be a major disappointment. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy having lunch with Kate, he did because of her looks and personality. It was because he saw on her hand a diamond engagement ring. Hoping that it was just something she wore to stop men from hitting her, he asked her about the ring. She said she had just become engaged to a nice man who was a management consultant. She was now planning what would be a small wedding. Noah bit the bullet and congratulated her and tried to hide his disappointment.

After lunch, he wished her luck and much happiness. He also remembered reading a Paul Conners column which made the point that if you find someone, don’t be hesitant to act on it or they may be gone before you know it and be with someone else. How true that was now hit home with him.

All Noah had to do was surf the net for a little while to come up with topics for his columns. The new standard of guilty till proven innocent in alleged sexual harassment claims, defunding the police, and unprosecuted shop lifters were topics he commented on from the perspective of an average citizen. When there were problems that arose because of increased taxes or lack of actions by politicians, he told the readers that they shouldn’t complain by reminding them they were the ones who voted for these elected these politicians.

The feedback he received from the readers generally supported him. He wondered about the negative responses he received, especially those involving political discourse. He knew there were readers who didn’t care for what he said, but yet at the same time they were still reading his column and responding to him. In a column Noah cited a segment of the population in which ninety percent historically vote for one political party. Yet, he said it was this political party that established the KKK and enacted Jim Crow laws. It must be he said that these people are unaware of history.

Noah did accept the possibility that he could be wrong in having his opinions, but that was the way he honestly felt when he wrote his columns. He did try to understand what readers with an opposing view were saying. Noah hoped his readers would give honest consideration to what he was saying and not have closed minds.

It became interesting when one of the other opinion columnists at the newspaper expressed in their columns viewpoints that were contrary to Noah’s. A few times, the “She Stirs the Pot” column was written in rebuttal to those columnists. He would finish by asking the readers to decide who was right. He did review the emails the readers sent in when he asked for their opinions.

A few of the readers who disagreed with him indicated that they would never change their minds and said Bonnie was too conservative. He couldn’t help but notice that he was getting responses on just about every column he wrote from certain readers. There were several email addresses that were constantly sending negative responses about his columns. Rather than telling them they shouldn’t bother to read his column and spend more time with their family, he just set it up for those emails to go directly to his spam folder without him seeing or reading them. Reading these responses in his mind, was just a waste of time that he could do without as these readers weren’t being fair minded.