Your Name In Lights (I got published!)

Well, you never know what an editor will do.

I'll tell you, I'm thrilled to be published. I've only been published in college and high school papers (and yearbooks). Now I can officially say that I've been published in a large metropolitan newspaper. The Houston Chronicle picked up my letter to President Bush, and it's in today's paper.

Strangely, they changed it from addressing Bush directly, from being an open letter to a pure op-ed piece. I'm not sure it has quite the same impact. I will admit that when I did my edit, it lost some of the personal accounts since i needed to get points in more than I needed to say, I agreed with this, I don't like that. Still, I do mention that I'm affected by this decision, that it is personal to me, and that's what I needed to do.

Still, I hope my message comes through. I'm not going to get direct feedback, but i'll have to look for future letters to the editor to see if anyone notices. I'm happy to be published, it's been a goal of mine for a while. It's just upsetting that it had to happen with such a stupid action, but that's how inspiration works.

The story: Bush Has Lost This Republican's Vote, in the Houston Chronicle

Oh, and they did call me and asked if I wanted to be officially be credited as a Republican, I thought, well, I've voted for enough Democrats to probably be an Independent moderate, but I said, sure, knowing the greater impact it would have. It's not untrue, though, as I've only voted in Republican Primaries before.

Since the Chronicle tends to hide archives for subscribers only, I'm going to add the text of the article here...

( The Article )