A Few Thoughts… On writing for free

By Sandy Compton
Reader Columnist

After 61 days away traveling the West — with 10 days on Maui thrown into the middle — it’s good to be home. I drove 7,434.8 miles, took way too many pictures, played golf, skied, ate out my cooler, camped out, stayed with friends and stayed within budget. 

It was a good break from the “real” world. The campsite gods treated me well, I got a dandy tan and had good adventures. Following twuad (twisting, winding, up-and-down) roads and blue highways, I avoided most urban craziness, dipping into it briefly at Vegas; Salt Lake; South Lake Tahoe; Tigard, Ore.; and Portland. 

I really can’t blame people for moving away from places like that, but I wish they’d leave some of their lifeways behind — like the big-ass-truck syndrome and bumper-riding. U.S. 95 and Highway 200 are not I-15 at Salt Lake, folks. Ease up. Ten seconds saved ain’t worth the stress you put on yourself and others. 

Slowing down has been my basic message since 1987, when I began writing a column for the Bonner News Digest. This was after a bunch of years of wandering in my personal wilderness, trying to get my head screwed on straight, which I kind of did. Not completely, but I don’t know many people who have their heads completely screwed on straight. 

I’ve continued since to write that we need to decrease speed; take better care of each other and the planet; quite buying stuff we don’t need and can’t afford; quit trying to be like people who there is no way on God’s green earth we are going to be like; turn off the titillating, violent, formulaic bullshit on TV; and get outside.  

I’ve not had a television since 1978, but I still like to watch sports and TVs are everywhere. In occasional motel stays, I did discover what appears to be a Harry Potter channel, which is almost worth suffering the commercials to watch, but “reality” TV goes to great lengths to suck us in with unreal scenarios — we must be really bored. Television sports now include six minutes of ads with each timeout, inning change or change of possession, all trying to get us to buy stuff we don’t need and can’t afford. 

After writing for Bonner News Digest, I wrote for Sandpoint Newsline and The River Journal — all for free. After 38 years, I still don’t get paid. I’ve had appreciative readers, though, and managed to piss off ultra-conservatives on a regular basis — gratifying in itself — but I don’t feel I’ve changed many minds or changed the direction of our culture, which seems bent on self-destruction through self-gratification. 

Just over half of American citizens have made a hero out of a man who should be in prison or an asylum. We’ve also elected a bunch of spineless men and women who are so afraid of him that they’ve given up their souls and responsibilities to the people who elected them. Between his insanity, that of his appointees and our “representatives’” lack of guts, much of the good our country has accomplished in the past 75 years is being ripped out by the roots. 

Hopefully, the past four months have opened enough eyes that midterm elections will change our direction from dissolution by executive order toward a return to sanity. Those who still believe they voted for the right person either voted for Kamala Harris or aren’t paying attention. 

If that pisses you off, I don’t care. I’m not writing to make anybody happy, or, evidently, to make a fortune. I’m writing to do my part in saving our country.