Editor,
It didn’t take long for publisher Mike Wilcox’s son, Jordan, to catch blow back from his essay advocating universal gun ownership as a solution to gun violence.
Of course, it’s a silly idea but I wonder if that might have been the intent.
The kid is in college and I think that maybe in an English lit class he stumbled upon the writings of an 18th century satirist by the name of Jonathan Swift, best known for Gulliver’s Travels and a reach too far with an essay (A Modest Proposal) promoting the eating of Irish children as a solution to a population problem.
And, did he catch hell for that!
Fortunately for Jonathon but unfortunately for the young Wilcox, Jonathan’s reputation wasn’t discolored aforehand by an editor father.
But, I allowed myself to take Jordan’s essay the way I would have an essay advancing the idea of increasing the burning of fossil fuels because the only way we’ll stop using them is to run out.
On the other hand, it’s equally likely he meant what he wrote.
He may be in college but he is not Swift.
David Ohmart
Allegan, MI
Saturday, October 05, 2024
