Op-Ed at the Rent-a-Car

"I'm calling the paper and cancelling my subscription. They shouldn't print stuff like that." The woman sat at a desk behind the Hertz counter, one hand balled at her waist, the other pressed flat against the desktop. A newspaper lay spread open on a nearby counter, too far away for me to read, but a glance at it made the red of the woman's hair seep into her face.

"Good for you," chimed the lady processing our rental. "Nobody speaks up. That's why they think they can get away with it."

I looked over at Brad to see if he had any clue what they were talking about, but he shook his head. Neither of us were feeling particularly alert just then anyway. The whole week had been hectic and tiring, and we'd been looking forward to getting back to Vancouver for New Year's Eve, only to find out moments before that we'd be stuck in West Virginia for the night.

The red-head continued fuming as she stood and walked to the phone on the counter. "We're cancelling our subscription to the Gazette," she yelled into the receiver. "I was reading the wedding section, and there, plain as day, was a picture of two women in white wedding dresses, saying they got married. I don't want my children seeing something like that." Her tirade went on for another few minutes. It was morally wrong, it was illegal, and she didn't want to see it. "My husband says to go ahead and cancel our subscription," she told the other lady when she hung up.

"Good."

We got the rental car keys and left before I could hear any more of the conversation, but I made Brad stop at a gas station on the way through Charleston to pick up a copy of that day's Gazette. And sure enough, in the "Celebrations" section, there was the picture she'd been talking about, with the wedding announcement underneath.

Thumbing through the rest of the Gazette, I thought about what the Hertz woman had said, and I realized that I'm glad I don't subscribe to a newspaper. I saw article after article about things I'm morally opposed to: terrorist bombings, war, murder, drug abuse, Internet sales taxes. How could the paper's editors possibly print things like that? Innocent children might read the news and start murdering people or taking drugs or passing legislation to tax my Amazon.com purchases.

Or maybe not. Maybe we could teach the children to be smart enough readers that they can think critically about the news they read, reach their own conclusions based on the facts presented and the values we teach them, and know that shooting the messenger is a useless form of protest. Maybe teach them that freedom of the press is not about censoring reality to conform to someone's religious views. And that there are worse things in the world than the expression of a new family's joy, things like blind hatred and bigoted intolerance.

On the other hand, I can understand the woman's anger. I get upset reading the news, too. There's far too little respect for grammatical niceties, such as actually using commas and writing complete sentences, for my taste. I don't know what editors these days are thinking. As far as the wedding announcement goes, though--

I don't know who they are, but congratulations to Julia McDonald and Christine Letcher on their recent nuptials and warm wishes for a happy marriage.