On most mornings, I get to the office early. I get a good parking spot. I usually am the first to arrive in the newsroom, so I turn on the lights. (I refuse to make the coffee, though.)
I’ve grown accustomed to homeless people walking past our building. They come up from the river, or from down at the park. I usually don’t feel threatened by them. Some have asked for money. I have told several where they can find shelter and a hot meal.
A few weeks ago, I arrived at the office about 7:30. There wasn’t a lot of activity at the corner of Broadway and Riverside, except for a homeless man moving slowly down the sidewalk. I paused for a moment to see which way he was headed. If I’m not in the mood to deal with them, I sometimes wait until they disappear around the corner before I get out of my car.
But this man stopped to look at the morning’s headlines in the newspaper rack at the front of the building. He spent a long time there, his eyes scanning everything. It was obvious he wasn’t going to spend 50 cents to buy the paper. I doubt he had two quarters in his pocket, anyway.
So, he stood frozen, reading the upper half of the front page. That was all he was going to get — for free.
In newspaper language, we call that “above the fold.” It’s where the emphasis on your paper is going to be every day. It’s your front door. You’ve got to invite the readers inside.
I thought for a long time what that man was missing — the weather report, the baseball box scores, the comic page, garden tips, Dear Abby and the crossword puzzle. He wouldn’t get to read the classified ads or read his horoscope. Hey, he even missed out reading my column!
But there are a lot of others out there, too, who are just like this guy. And they’re not homeless. They don’t take the time to read a newspaper. Learn about their community. Make the world a better place.
It reminds me of a quote by Mark Twain: “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”
And that’s my sermon for today.
Can I get an “Amen”?