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Date published: 3/19/2003 By PAUL AKERS FIVE YEARS AGO, this editorial page moved rightward. As the party whose hand was on the rudder, I can attest that the course change was not without chop. A national journalism review, detecting an affront to the natural progression of the universe, deemed the event newsworthy--the professional equivalent of the tabloid's "Human mom gives birth to ape boy!" "(10-inch tail astounds docs!)" A man wrote in to inquire if the new editor, an alumnus of the "Christian right" Heritage Foundation (where the suspect's immediate bosses were named Berkowitz and Rubin), would presently advocate the stoning of sinners. A woman oft-described as "liberal" publicly impugned my fitness for the job based upon the lowliness of my alma mater, which, it is true, at least once educated the son of a truck driver. And then there was Larry Evans, whose position I was taking. "Be prepared for a cold reception," a friend said. "And if you don't get one, really be careful--you'll get it in the back." This warning, rational enough in light of what I knew of human nature (see above), was among the most unnecessary advice anyone ever received. A week before I officially started, I visited Larry's office for a familiarization session. Larry shook hands and proceeded to brief me in his cradle-rocking low hum of a voice on the duties of the job--pulling columns off the wire, editing the columns, logging and editing letters, fielding telephone calls from readers and idea pushers, overseeing and checking off on page proofs, and, oh yes, writing meticulously researched, intellectually compelling, and artfully crafted editorials in the time that remained (0:01.58). "After a while," Larry said, "you'll get into a rhythm." Larry, at someone else's direction, was turning over an editorial page he had tended and developed for 10 years to a guy who had just parachuted in from the Vast Right-wing Conspiracy, and he was doing this as carefully, civilly, and graciously as an avid fisherman might pass a prize fly rod to a blood relative, slowly explaining how it worked and expressing welcome confidence in the new owner's ability to use it to the sure grief of assorted speckled trout. This was, is, Larry Evans--a man without discernible meanness, as pettiness-free as any specimen Adam's brood is likely to produce.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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