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I get Larry's column as an email through creators.com and subscribe to my local newspaper as an online email. I could pay to read it online but it is difficult to read an entire set of articles that way. I also get emails from our local TV stations. My reason for not subscribing to the paper has nothing much to do with content or bias - the guys will not put it in the newspaper sleeve I purchased years ago. They will throw it on the ground and my husband refuses to have it brought into the house. No calls to the paper or personal requests to the people who deliver it make any difference. Besides, my local paper does not carry Larry's column, so creators.com is my only access.

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Newspapers are a dying industry. Has been ever since TV news burst onto the scene decades ago. Bias is a pervasive problem and a big reason for the decline, as is the poor quality of much of the writing and editing. But it's also because it's easier and cheaper to get your news online now. As for what's happening in one's community, aren't there websites for that now, too? A lot of magazines (especially so-called "news" like Time, Newsweek, and US News & World Report) are on their way out as well, for the same reasons. Shoddy reporting, bad writing, poor editing, and bias bias bias. The cover of this week's Time is a case in point, reading "Is the GOP an endangered species?" just because a single presidential election went the Left's way and a single (unreliable) GOP senator switched parties.

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Matt's letter is heartbreaking. I, for one, look forward to reading the newspaper daily. There is something soothing about holding those pages in my hands as I scan for articles of interest. The actual printed newspaper allows me to separate myself from my work, where almost everything is on the computer. I find Larry's comments about the reporting of local, regional, and state news to be accurate in terms of my local paper, The Fayetteville Observer. While there are written columns I do not agree with, I learn much from reading them. These articles permit me to see the perspective of others. Understanding where others, who think differently than I do, are coming from has helped me tremendously especially in my work as a classroom teacher. Even some of the writers to Larry's column have opened my eyes to a world I would otherwise not know exists. The newspaper broadens one's perspective and helps one think outside of the box. It is the tool that has been used to help thousands of people to read. In addition, the donation of your old newspapers will also be of great benefit to local animal shelters and boarding kennels. Matt, I hope you reconsider your decision. If not, perhaps you could send your subscription to a nursing home where someone less fortunate than you would appreciate your generosity. As for me, I will keep my subscription paid up by the year!

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I too love to read the paper, but hate the stacks of paper and the loss of trees. But that is not why I write. I too thought that more kids would go to college if only their parents supported the idea. My own dad said I could go after my brother did, yet he was 6 grades behind me in school and had already repeated one year. What was the drive that was deep inside of me? I knew from a young age I would go to college, yet not one aunt and uncle had been to college, and as the middle of the pack of cousins, I could see no other cousin wanting to go to high school much less college. I did go on and get my degree, and so have my kids and my husband. One child went on for her Master's. Here I thought that I started the trend to desire education. Could it have been a desire to be able to support myself in case of a divorce or death of a spouse? Dad and mom divorced while I was in high school. Or did college mean something to me because I wanted to no longer be "poor". It was difficult in high school to get my school counselor to listen to me and place me in advanced classes. Perhaps there was a different reason what made me aim for an advanced degree? Many years later I think I discovered the answer. Long after my parents died, and after my oldest was off to college, I learned that dad was not my biological dad. The man whom mom had hoped to marry came from a family of college grads. His dad was an attorney and his mom a teacher. He was to go on to college too, and his folks said no marriage before college, which left my mom looking for someone to marry her. I no longer take credit for this inner desire to further my education. I no longer think my dad's abandonment drove me to get a degree. I think that it was genetic. The gut feeling I would go to college was stronger than those who tried to tell me it was not for people like me. Yes, families should stay intact for many reasons. Women should make better choices for themselves in the men they choose to love. The same holds true for the men who give their DNA away freely and without concern for the consequence. Though the environment I grew up in was incredibly painful, and I had every reason to fail, I also had an inner voice that bolstered my confidence and led me to a better place. My DNA daddy gave me the support I needed to suceed. No one should stop planning for college because they do not have the DNA to head them that way. Maybe the desire to go to college goes further back in our history. I do not know, but I now know why the calling was so strong for me when every sign said I am not from a family who usually considers education to be important.