From the Editor

by Glenn R. Case

First,  I wanted to note that we have a new Advertising Manager, Theron Jackson.

Advertising can be a valuable source of additional revenue for Greater Phoenix Mensa.  The MAAM as it stands is one of the most efficiently produced newsletters in Mensa and inclusion of advertising can make it even more so.   The flip side is that advertising in a Mensa publication, can be one of the most cost-effective avenues for many people.

So if you run a business or practice, consider advertising in the MAAM. In the past, while I have been your editor, I  tended to steer away from controversial issues.  As a practical matter, most of these issues are widely discussed in many other publications as well as numerous forums on the Internet.  In the past few months, however, I did publish some articles that reflect how Mensans in general, but members of Greater Phoenix Mensa in particular, feel about various things.  The general reaction and feedback has been very positive.  Whether people agree with an author or not, the ability to express feelings and beliefs in the more philosophical realm has been positive.

So in that vein, I am publishing a paper on how Mary LaMagna feels about her background having been raised Catholic.  I have some other material that I will publish in the future as space permits.  From the Editor’s point of view these articles have an additional value in that they are generally not time sensitive and they can be inserted when space allows.

Naturally in many cases there will be the desire to rebut these comments and feelings.  That is fine.   Letters to the Editor or articles will generally always be published provided a couple of conditions are met:  first they are of reasonable size.  One MAAM page consumes about 700 words.  Since the issue has limited space outside of the Calendar and other business oriented matters, size is important.  The second is that the article hits to an issue and not a person.  This is practically never a problem.

One question of interest to me is what we consider religion and philosophy to be in the first place.   Perhaps we can better develop that idea as time goes on.