TRUST BILL - REALLY!

Why should you read my novels – or anyone else’s? Frankly, there’s no reason to unless I – and they - prove worthy of your trust. Why should you read my blog? Again none, except for two tiny benefits compared with the books; they’re free and they’re short – bargains in cash and time. My words are no more valuable than anyone else’s - unless you have developed a certain minimum level of confidence in my thoughts or comfort in my way of expressing them, yet I regularly ask for your precious time. That’s ridiculous!

Your time is the most valuable thing you have to offer any commentator, so you should rightly reject demands by those asking you to consider their points of view. Still, without outside opinion your life would much emptier. You have to trust somebody. Some would more readily buy into many of the positions of the New York Times; others would be more comfortable with The Wall Street Journal. I could go on with this comparison indefinitely and, for example, juxtapose Rush Limbaugh and Jane Fonda, but you get the point; there are an indefinite number of points of view all seeking your time.

Al Bundy of Married…With Children was way ahead of Wild Bill. Many of the Bundys of the world whose lives were changed by playing high school ball decide that their best shot at the brass ring would be to open sporting goods stores. Likewise many among us who like to eat or, especially, cook, decide they could easily and profitably run restaurants. Sadly, most of such dream roads lead, like Al’s, not to the Biblical Hell but to selling women’s shoes, to bagging groceries or, worse, to writing government memos.

But those with strong opinions never learn. We‘re just not as smart as Al Bundy; we won’t simply fail, drop it, and smell the socks. We’re know it alls who understand terrorism, the War in Iraq, or whatever and can’t stop telling you that George has it all wrong. Is Rush Limbaugh that much smarter than everyone else? When listening to him – which I do far more often than my liberal friends would like to hear – I often find him funny but almost never compelling. But old Rush has tens of millions of listeners, so who’s Wild Bill to say the man is a charlatan milking the red state rubes and their disaffected blue state blowhards?

When Wild Bill makes a statement, many get angry. “I’ve known that jackass for fifty years, and he hasn’t made any sense yet. Who does he think he is, Rush Limbaugh?” The better question might be, who does Rush think he is? Rush Limbaugh?

All of us seeking your time, if not your money, hold ourselves out to be not only communicators but great pontificators. But who says that Richard Cohen, Rush, E. J. Dionne, Jr, Robert Novak or Wild Bill is worth a fig or a minute? Well we can start with publishers and station owners; they bet their money on these guys – okay, and Maureen Dowd and Ellen Goodman, et al – and gals. Still the blogosphere is now loaded with tens of thousands of madmen and madwomen screaming to be heard.

What’s a reader to do? Trust Bill! Not really, but as you sample you’ve got to take some chances. Some of the bloggers are nuts; others are so clearly partisan is to be unworthy of your attention and, of course, that most precious of all things, your time.

All I can do is promise to be as thoughtful and reasonable as I can be, and I’ll even try to be clear and down to earth in my presentations. I won’t KNOWINGLY steal from anyone else’s material. And I’ll try to entertain while presenting my point of view.

I’m quite flattered that despite having gone on semi-sabbatical many of my regulars and an occasional newcomer will check in to see if I’ve posted anything new. While this used to be a daily electronic rag it has become a semi-monthly, at least until the next election cycle rolls around but it’s heartening to know that people are at least glancing at the site.

So even if you’ve read one of my novels, if I’ve amused you even slightly, get out there and tell somebody else to spring for one.

Blog on!

Wild Bill