Last week we lost two subscribers to the Coastal Courier and Bryan County News because they weren’t happy with an editorial cartoon which ran in the papers and one wasn’t happy with the performance of the United States Postal Service in delivering our papers.

I’m not absolutely sure, but both of the parties involved were saying almost verbatim what the other was saying. It was as if a script had been handed to them and they were following the script to the letter.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve about had it with fake outrage.

If a cartoon sets you off, then good luck watching the evening national news because they will freak you out every 90 seconds. If the post office is part of the evil plan to take over the country, then please don’t ever lick a stamp again. You’re doomed.

I guess at this point I should apologize. Isn’t that the rage today? Make a simple statement and then have to apologize before the fake outrage groups descend on you and possibly take away your lively-hood.

While I’m at it, I apologize for liking Dr. Seuss when I was growing up. I had no idea he was such a master of racism that no one realized it until recently. I also apologize that I don’t recognize any argument when it starts “Some have said….”

Some have said the children’s books depicted racism and bigotry. As a parent, if I felt a book, movie, TV show depicted something that was unseemly, I would talk to the kids about it and explain why I approved or disapproved. I don’t need to hear from “Some have said…”

Can’t we think for ourselves and our families without running with the many flocks of sheep in the country right now? If you like white you have to not like black. If you like black then there’s no way you can like white.

What the heck happened to grey?

My point about our two new “non-subscribers” is that they virtually were spewing the type of scripted manifest that one side of the fence throws at the other side. We are far too liberal to some or way too conservative for others.

To hear the outrage from one caller that I talked with I could swear I was listening to the NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC newscasts rolled up into one. If you’re going to be fake outraged, at least be original. Don’t repeat lines that I’ve already heard 100 times to justify why you are canceling your paper.

I hear this sometimes. “I have been taking the paper for 25 years and now I’m just fed up.”

Heck, I know I don’t like something pretty much instantly, it usually doesn’t take me 25 years. I’m sure there have been editors and publishers at the Courier and Bryan County News who have had different political leanings or thoughts. Other than staying away from some columns or stories that are outright meant to be divisive and inflammatory, I believe we report and share the news in a fair and impartial way. It’s up to you as the reader to take from our reporting what you want. If I feel we are doing our job, something I’ve done for over 40 years, then I can live with someone disagreeing with me or the paper.

As always we encourage readers to contribute to our letters to the editor section, but I’ll repeat what I mentioned earlier, be original. I’ve heard enough of the Democrats are socialists and the Republicans are antagonists and that Trump was a terror and Biden is an idiot.

Bring something original to an argument before you become like many of the flocks of sheep that seem to be grazing all over our nation right now.

If you see me say, “Hey!”

Dee McLelland is Publisher of the Coastal Courier and Bryan County News.