Originally published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, May 10, 2004.

The "Public Pulse" is the "Letters to the Editor" section of my local daily newspaper, the Grand Rapids Press. And, although the quality of certain other sections may be lacking, I'd have to say the Public Pulse is one of the best of its kind. Which is to say, they print a lot of letters.

As long as they are not profane and at least slightly coherent, the letters get printed. I read it regularly just to keep up with exactly who is and who is not going to Hell. In West Michigan, this is always a popular topic and a surefire way to get printed. I think that's great because being a letter to the editor, it is kept within the context of personal opinion and is not endorsed or denounced by the paper in general.

Recently, however, the Press decided to call attention to a Public Pulse letter with a front page story. The city of manager of GR, Kurt Kimball, wrote a letter expressing his displeasure with contract negotiations between the neighboring city of Kentwood school district and their teacher's union. Kimball is a graduate of Kentwood schools and his wife is currently a teacher. Kimball attended a recent school board meeting and wrote, "It is becoming increasingly obvious to the Kentwood school community that Superintendent Mary Leiker's management style is dysfunctional and counterproductive," which I paraphrased in this week's comic.

The Press's rationale for this seemed to be that Kimball, being in a management position for labor negotiations with GR city unions, was a hypocrite for writing such a letter. That may be (though I don't think so), but it was wrong to single out a letter to the editor. It left me to wonder what the Press might do if other readers voiced opinions they construed as a conflict of interest.

My particular axe to grind is with the Press's crappy comic section, even though I'm a cartoonist. If ever there was a cautionary tale for what lousy results you can expect from a lack of competition, this is it. With no other local daily newspaper, the Press just doesn't need to care. I read comics I miss on the Internet (www.comics.com, www.ucomics.com, www.kingfeatures.com, www.comicspage.com, www.postwritersgroup.com/comics.htm), and I buy an occasional Sunday Detroit Free Press/News for my kids who are big comics fans. But it sure would be nice if the paper I subscribe to would get serious someday....

So this week's comic is my take on what would happen if I actually sent the letter in.

Actually, if I were to write them a letter, I would write it like this to make sure it got printed without any special attention:

Dear Public Pulse,
Please replace the evil comics from your newspaper. Marmaduke clearly represents the beast in Chapter 13 of Revelations. Sally Forth is sometimes shown working on Sundays and is therefore corrupting our youth. And the Family Circus's depiction of ghostly grandfathers and Billy's dotted line paths are obviously signs of the occult.