Fiction: “Dear Editor” by Paul Beckman

Dear Editor

Dear Editor,

Please cancel our subscription. I can no longer have your newspaper lying around where my children can read the “Letters to the Editor” advocating same-sex marriage, separation of church and state, atheist rights, teaching of sex education in school, locations where free condoms are dispensed, transgender studies (whatever they are), school book lists with teen pregnancies, gay themes, sex talk of any kind and cuss words, talking about the good Planned Parenthood does (without mentioning the harm), help for abused women, pregnant girls, rogue cops, gun laws, medical marijuana, pro-choice, shorter jail sentencing, Black Lives Matter, and pro-immigration.

After all, this is America. Read your constitution and Bill of Rights or better yet, print them in your Anti-God, anti-family, and anti-American newspaper.

Marcus and Mary Ellen Higganum

Proprietors of Lock and Load Firearms and The Booze Barn

PS: long time subscribers and advertisers.

PPS: We are also considering pulling our advertising.

Paul Beckman’s story “Healing Time” was one of the winners in the 2016 The Best Small Fictions and his one hundred word story “Mom’s Goodbye” was chosen as the winner of the 2016 Fiction Southeast Editor’s Prize. His stories are widely published in print and online in the following magazines amongst others: Connecticut Review, Raleigh Review, Litro, Playboy, PANK, Blue Fifth Review, Flash Frontier, Matter Press, Metazen, Pure Slush, Jellyfish Magazine, Thrice Fiction, and Literary Orphans. His latest collection, Peek, weighed in at sixty-five stories and one hundred twenty pages. Paul lives in Connecticut and earned his MFA from Bennington College. His published story website is paulbeckmanstories.com and he blogs at pincusb.com. He also runs the FBomb flash fiction reading series at the KGB Red Room in New York.

Check out HFR’s book catalog, publicity list, submission manager, and buy merch from our Spring store. Follow us on Instagram and YouTube. Disclosure: HFR is an affiliate of Bookshop.org and we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Sales from Bookshop.org help support independent bookstores and small presses.