Mistakes
I had a sign on the wall in the cluttered office I worked from in my first job out of journalism school—editor of the Tri-County News in Junction City—that I had ripped out of Mad Magazine (one of the most influential publications of my upbringing):
Alfred E. Neuman staring at a poster that said
Everybody Makes
Makes Mistakes
For some reason, I could look at that 100 times, and 50 times my brain wouldn’t register the double verb.
But I needed that assurance that I wasn’t alone in my failings. I made a lot of mistakes at Tri-County News. I was a one-person editorial team. Once I massacred the word sergeant in a three-column headline. I can’t even recreate how badly I misspelled that word, but my publisher—who shoved the tainted pages in my face—probably could. I wrote headlines as the paper was being laid out around 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday mornings, usually after a sleepless night of covering some local government meeting, writing a story about it, and then somehow writing something in the neighborhood of being coherent for my weekly column—all before heading to the newspaper office in Veneta to lay out the paper. After that, I delivered the camera-ready pages to Springfield, waited for them to be printed, drove back to Veneta to stuff inserts into the paper, then delivered the finished product to news boxes around Lane, Linn, and Benton counties. But, dammit, I was still supposed to spell sergeant right.
And I’ve made lots of mistakes since. Fortunately, as my publishing career progressed in the trade magazine world and here at Oregon Quarterly, I’ve been blessed by the sharp eyes and keen attention of some great editors and proofreaders. But in all the pieces and decisions and facts and words that go into a complex publication like Oregon Quarterly, it’s just not possible to be perfect all the time—I can say that now with some perspective and status as an elder having hit my twenty-fifth year in this profession and my sixtieth birthday earlier this year. We try (unlike the publisher who once told me that if there were no mistakes in his magazine, he was paying too much for proofreading), and we do pretty well, I think, but we still have enough misses to tie a knot in my stomach each time we send a magazine out into the world.
And there are mistakes that can’t be easily fixed with a “Corrections” box on our letters page. I made one of those recently: misread something, told somebody something that turned out not to be right, made somebody happy only to have to pull that away. A simple mistake really—a brain blip like that triggered by the Mad poster—but fixing it left somebody feeling bad who shouldn’t have. I apologized. Apology was accepted. But I couldn’t quite make it right for me or the other person.
Everybody makes mistakes. I don’t know if I make more mistakes or fewer mistakes than the average person. It doesn’t matter. It’s easy to find someone who’s made worse mistakes than us to somehow make ours seem not so bad. But our mistakes shape us in ways our successes never can: they eat us up, make us run and hide and go through all sorts of distortions to explain or excuse—or they render us humble enough to learn and grow, to rethink the way we do things, to try to make things better, if not wholly right. They’re tough teachers but the lessons usually stick.
Yay, Spring!
I love OQ. It keeps me totally in touch with what’s happening at the UO. I read it cover to cover. Especially liked the story on Saul Zaik, “The Arc of the Architect.”
Scott Egan ’81
Kuwait City, Kuwait
What a service Oregon Quarterly does for your readers. The Spring 2010 issue brought back memories, distant and recent, to us and brought joy to our lives.
We were amazed to see the eye-catching photograph of a completely flat plain in Mongolia with a Turkic image stone dominating the panorama [UpFront]. Looking closer, we saw it was from the new Archaeology and Landscape in the Mongolian Altai: An Atlas, coauthored by James Meacham ’84 , MA ’92, director of the InfoGraphics Lab in the UO geography department. Jim recently gave us a tour of the lab, and an early copy of the atlas had arrived that day so we were involved and exhilarated. We are both geographers and support the department financially and assist their students on projects whenever we can.
Second, the article about Saul Zaik [“Arc of the Architect”], the brilliant architect from the Portland area. We knew him in Portland, and we skied together. What an asset he has been to Oregon and the University. Thank you for the versatility in Oregon Quarterly.
Culley ’56 and Shiena Polehn
Medford
I am giving a subscription to OQ to a friend in Ireland because it is the periodical I most look forward to reading throughout the year. Thanks for providing this high-quality, thoughtful, and creative publication.
Jim Stark ’77, MS ’95
Springfield
Anger and Politics
Robert Leo Heilman’s advice: “let bygones be bygones”—ancient and sagely as he suggests—is, if I might be blunt, simple-minded. Does he believe most Americans are so “civilized” as to be expected to forever “turn the other cheek,” while rampaging global finance oligarchs ransack their nation into poverty, hijack their every institution for so-called “national defense,” and impress them into service, all to advance an agenda of global hegemony that serves only elite financiers, and does so while making everyone opposed to this wholesale mental rape, financial pillage, and filial enslavement appear guilty of treason? Or, is this now the most philistine nation of all time, drugged and seduced by overwhelmingly mindless pop culture, running in tandem with a wholly owned corporate media that incites self-defeating hatred in the form of faux Left-vs-Right politics, which serves to distract virtually everyone from identifying and focusing on their common enemy: The Global Finance Oligarchy and its phony Global War of Terror?
Jack Gabel ’79, MMus ’81
Portland
I eagerly look forward to the Quarterly. I always find a name I remember. This time, I read a wonderful feature penned by Robert Heilman, who lives where I grew up, Myrtle Creek. Having also lived in the Los Angeles area and been a frequent visitor of the zoo, I remember the plight of the animals in the old, smaller zoo. They likely had lost their minds with nothing to do amid small quarters. Like Heilman, I suspect people in similar situations frequently end in insanity or violence. I graduated in 1963, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and was a letter holder on one of the great Bill Bowerman’s track teams. I remember my UO days as wonderful. Thanks for a great publication.
Bill Klimback ’63
Boise, Idaho
“At the Zoo” seemed a bit cliché-ish. From the photo on the cover (angry-old-white-guy behind the American flag) to the unsubstantiated references about talk radio. According to the author, Tea Party participants are merely fearful people throwing excrement like apes. They are the dupes of a capitalistic industry of deceit. He takes the animal metaphor and moves on to a sweet story of how his childhood zoo has been improved and the animals are much happier. I guess the connection is that the apes should be content in their cages and with their planned nutritional meals.
Heilman would rather we “spend our time and money to reduce human worries.” Finally, he touched upon his real agenda: taking money from other citizens to further his utopian ideals. Allow me my own animal metaphor, borrowed from George Orwell. In a utopian society, “Some pigs are just more equal than others.” Perhaps the recent public outcry is just good old American protest from people who are well aware of the problems they face. Excuse me while I put down this article and make my poster for tomorrow’s rally, “Don’t Tread on Me.” I am angry and plan to use my freedom of speech.
Elizabeth Stevens Howe ’73
Auburn, Washington
I have never read a more compelling, thoughtful, and heartfelt comment on the current conflicts that seem to be tearing our society apart than in “At the Zoo.” The hatred that permeates our airwaves and printed media reflects and promotes a social unease that appears to be growing exponentially at all levels. This unease is reflected in serious conversations that I hear among my age cohorts (I am ninety). Ironically, so much of it runs counter to our professed Christian faith, which promotes forgiveness, loving our enemies, taking care of the “least” among us, and so on. There appears to be little room for a thoughtful exchange of views. It is too often “us versus them,” “good versus evil,” “they”—quite often the least advantaged—who are taking what should be rightfully “ours.”
Burt Newbry, EdD ’62
Mesa, Arizona
Robert Leo Heilman in “At the Zoo” says: “What is there to cling to when by your own doing or by others or by cold fate you have lost everything? Stripped of dignity, mired in failure, caged in by tough circumstances and uncontrollable forces, what is left to people but to embrace comforting nonsense and to rage against perceived injustice?” I have never seen a more apt description of the small-town liberal.
Doug Beck
Merlin
Robert Heilman’s article, “At The Zoo,” is one of the best I have read on the subject of free and hate speech. He nailed it when he said half-truths and fictions have nothing to do with brainpower or education—“it takes root in the uneducated and the highly educated alike.” I especially liked his reminder that those professional liars-for-profit are far more dangerous than “a thief, a burglar, or a robber (who) only harms a few victims” while the damage from the propagators of hate may affect millions and go on for centuries.
I liked his conclusion but offer an even simpler concept: Awareness. As you become more aware of a person or nation you become more understanding, and it is harder to kill them or to go to war against them.
Paul Fillinger, MBA ’65
Lafayette, California
Thank you for the insightful essay by Robert Heilman. As usual, his opinions defy placement along any political spectrum and are not useful to anyone inclined to define the “other” as essentially different from him or me. Being a good neighbor in places like rural Douglas County requires such an orientation, and that lifestyle offers lessons about our humanness that those of us who live in more urban environments tend to avoid. Examining the abhorrent behavior of others for what it reveals about ourselves may make us uncomfortable, but it’s necessary if we hope to end our culture of hate and polarization.
Byron Glidden, MS ’86
Eugene
The United States unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in February of 2010. In addition, on March 5, 2010, MarketWatch reported concerning U.S. unemployment, “The U6 alternative gauge of the unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers and those forced to work part-time, rose to 16.8 percent from 16.5 percent.” This, in spite of spending almost 1 trillion dollars in “stimulus” spending that was essentially a reward to those who voted for the president, especially public employee unions. And you wonder why the common people outside the big cities, those swing voters of the middle class and conservative citizens who have built this country, the 20 percent of those who pay 80 percent of the taxes, are angry?
Kenneth E. Ehlers ’65
Sisters
Free Speech and Hate
I wondered what was going on at these repulsive forums, and the clarification came with the Editor’s Note [“Free Speech, Hate, and Community,” Spring 2010]. I agree that a lesson can be taught by allowing these repugnant ideas to be “championed” by giving them a respectable—even a university-approved sponsorship. The lesson is NOT to give these parasites a forum—and the defense of them in the name of “free speech” is a lesson in historical amnesia, naïveté, misplaced “liberalism,” and self-destructive impulses. Until these criminal vipers are tossed out and not allowed on or near campus, I withdraw any financial support for the UO.
Lorraine Widman, MFA ’56
Portland
I just read and appreciated your Editor’s Note on free speech. The problem I read about around the country is that “conservative”-type speakers such as David Horowitz or Ann Coulter routinely need body guards or police presence to speak on American college campuses. They are even physically attacked. I was a young liberal McGovern fan–Nixon hater in my UO 1970s college days, but it is so important that students be made to understand the exchange of ideas. The “shout downers” need to be arrested by the police, same as the spray paint vandals at the [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer Alliance] office. The student who disagrees has got to be told, “Better stay civil.” Your column was good to read.
Greg Hilbers ’74
Huntington Beach, California
I appreciate your Editor’s Note in the Spring 2010 issue. Only one problem: You assumed the vandalism was perpetuated by the Pacifica Forum. Is there evidence for this? If not, it is a moot subject. The LGBTQA could have just as easily been behind it for all the obvious reasons. Your entire article is based on this presumption of the former group’s guilt. Come on, I am a UO J-school grad, too, and know the basic fact-finding that must support such allegations before an article like this is written. If there is irrefutable evidence, accept my apologies. If not, you become guilty of the very “hateful speech” you are justifiably against.
Robin Marks ’77
Portland
Guy Maynard responds: I didn’t make that assumption, but I’m sorry if I inadvertently left that impression.
Yell O
It was very interesting to see the O being repainted [“Student Alumni Association Launched, Gaining Momentum,” Old Oregon, Spring 2010]. As president of Alpha Phi Omega, the Boy Scout fraternity, I oversaw the building of the O. It was hard work and we had very hard rocks to get through. We used jackhammers to build the footing. Then concrete to hold it. Certainly glad to see there are persons willing to see to the upkeep of it. Go, Ducks!
Don Gunther ’58
Tucson, Arizona
