A. Quit

     You are covering Washington for your newspaper and a congressman from a district in which your newspaper circulates calls you in to announce he has managed to keep a post office building in your city. The Postal Service had intended to consolidate it with a post office in the nearby city of New Plains as an economy move. The service, he said, has canceled its plan. The congressman, William Hartwell, has served six terms in the House. He is a Democrat. He has been a good source for years.
     You chat with him about the criticism of Congress as a contentious, even capricious body, beset by partisan considerations, unable to act decisively. He agrees that there is merit in the criticism, and then goes on:

     I am having second thoughts about staying in Congress. An office holder has to ask himself if he is serving the public interest to the best of his ability. It really has to be a passion. I have gradually become aware that my enthusiasm for public service has been waning under the weight of my frustrated hopes, others' unreasonable pressures and the job's persistent demands.
     People want you to act for their interests, and often this is against the public interest. But how can you build a political base without catering to local demands? Yet it is the increasing narrowness, the declining public spirit that you see locally that you can't really cater to.
     The years have eroded my tolerance, stamina and patience. I am tiring of the criticism and the demands of my constituents. I am not sure I can continue to live with Jefferson's dictum, "When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself public property."
     It is difficult for a public servant to live in an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. It may be that the ineffectiveness of Congress is the result of these pulls and tugs.
     The other night, I was working past midnight when I spotted a letter from a constituent that complained I should not have voted for a pay raise, that I did not deserve one because I don't work hard enough. Here it was, 1:30 in the morning and I was starting to write to her. Then I thought, "Do I have to take this?"
     People are cynical about politicians. They shoot you down first and then ask questions. Let's be realistic. Most of us are not in this for the money. We get some sort of ego satisfaction in serving; some like the opportunity of moving up to something higher. But the grind is too great. I've had 69 days of vacation since I've been in Congress, and my marriage broke up because I could not afford to have my wife and four children in Washington, and we were separated for long periods.
     Maybe my time is running out anyway. I may be too liberal for my constituents. I've supported programs for the poor, and these are becoming less and less popular in my district. Also, I hate the prospect of having to raise so much money for the campaign....

     You are taking careful notes as he speaks, and he suddenly stops to ask, "You're not going to use that are you?" You say that you intend to, and he says he was not speaking for the record. You ask if he intends to run for re-election or is only thinking about running or not running, and he answers that he has definitely made up his mind to go home, to quit. All the more reason, you say, you want to use the story. He owes it to his constituents to tell them he is not going to seek re-election.
     No, he answers. Not now. You remind him of your understanding with your sources: no retroactive off-the-record remarks. He says he understands that, but he hopes you will hold off a while.

1. What do you do?
2. Presume you will write a story and write 300 words.

B. Death

     You decide to follow up on the demographic material that you wrote about a few weeks ago. (See Chapter 26, Exercises, B. Demographics.)
     You visit the city health department and obtain data from last year on causes of death. The mayor had mentioned "poor health" as a consequence of the data he had released then.
     You look at the figures, and it is evident that the mayor was on the right track. You show the data to your editor and he tells you he wants 500 words on the subject. (Click here for a map of health districts (168.0K) .)

Freeport Health Districts

     "I want you to make clear correlations between these figures and social and economic factors," he tells you.