The End of the Journal

By Jeremy Gulley

Thomas Merton, the 20th Century philosopher, theologian, and Trappist Monk, wrote that “the beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” He went on to say that the greatest goal of life is to love others and “not exist for ourselves.” Most people would agree with Merton’s words, yet they are a perfect example of theory being easier than practice.

This week, my brother, owner and operator of the Osawatomie Journal decided, after almost three years, to shut it down. The paper began in 2009 as the collaboration of Doug Carder, my brother, myself, and many other people who volunteered their time, money, gas, and advice to give Osawatomie another choice regarding reading material.

Unfortunately, due to a turn in the market, some interpersonal issues, and other unforeseen circumstances, my brother ended up running the paper mostly by himself with the help of a few other writers and volunteers.

Now that it is shut down, he has become the target of some criticism that I think needs to be addressed.  Most of the criticism I hear is based on how it affects those who wrote for the paper or read the paper or had things to do with it other than actually run the paper (handle the billing, lay out the pages, deal with advertisers and employees and other day to day obligations).

The fact of the matter is that the person that this affects the most is my brother: not me or my wife, though we both enjoyed writing for the paper; not the other writers for the paper; not our family or friends or even the investors. The truth is that we should be worried about how Jeff is doing, not selfishly worrying about where we are going to publish our stories or other meaningless drivel. The selfishness and self-absorption that I have witnessed is atrocious and those involved should be ashamed.

I use Merton above in order to round out my argument, and show that my thoughts come from more than just family ties. Too often we look at our world based on how it affects us, not with others in mind. I argue, along with Merton, that the only way to truly be happy is to put other people first and push selfishness aside

Short URL: http://osawatominews.com/?p=1693

Posted by admin on Jun 27 2012. Filed under Jeremy Gulley, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry