Bill McClellan: Simply Direct

I decided to start with Bill McClellan’s columns. McClellan is a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Though I know little about his background with writing, I understand that he is an inspiration to those in the community. He reimburses their time with editorials and columns seemingly strange and paradoxical at times.

However, his strength seems to lie in his endings. For example, in the article Why wait till the last minute used to be my motto, McClellan explores people’s social changes. Groups and routine behaviors lead us to certain habits. “Obviously, I don't yet know how to talk with my new crowd.” McClellan highlights the sense of comfort we build on from these groups; when we choose to leave that zone, we encounter difficulties. Just as high school cliques suggest, we must then adapt and this ever-changing adaptation creates disruption. Yet, it seems infinite. And infinitely complicated.

The article Man wearing a winter coat greets spring with a smile explores the process of human mentality. He judges a man by his physical appearance. His thoughts are negative (surprised?) and it sparks false inferences. “Just standing there grinning, as if a beautiful spring day were a gift from God and well deserving of a smile. And I figured he was mentally ill.” He ends the column with this short sentence to emphasize his automatic response, a response imposed from years of living in a self-centered society. The term mentally ill implies that the smile was not only a strange occurrence, but a disruptive one that should be locked away in those padded white rooms.

Proof the world is not a rational place, an article about the job market, employs a valid comparison to make its point. The article is saying that the choices we make are not rational for many reasons. To illustrate his position, he discusses the absurdity of money exchange. He shows two different perspectives. On one side, a mayor will not trade his unpleasant job for a higher-paying career in another field and politicians raise billions of dollars for a position that doesn’t pay half of that. And though that rationalization does not upset anyone, the opposite does.

Top employees, like Ameren Chief Executive Gary Rainwater, of large companies are paid billions of dollars when the profits of their company suffer and decline substantially. “Finally, how tough can it be to run Ameren? It isn't as if consumers have much of a choice. It's Ameren or candles. Most of us prefer electricity, and Ameren has a monopoly on that. Actually, I could understand if somebody were willing to pay $2.8 million to get Rainwater's job. That would be the sign of a rational market.” He’s direct. Despite the comparisons and examples throughout the column, he asserts his opinion in the last two sentences. It might be easy to simply say in two sentences, but the message wouldn’t have stayed with the readers had he not used different cases.

Anyone interested in his best articles, can purchase his book, Through the Glass Darkly, at the Post-Dispatch Store.