As the strike by the Writer’s Guild of America grinds on,

the guild is the only union left in America that has any power. Many other

unions that are connected to producing any good or service that can be

outsourced has fallen victim to corporations with fiduciary responsibility to

return maximum value to shareholders. And they do that by finding a comparable

product at a reduced cost. But the product the writer’s guild produces is

incomparable because it deals in the raw ideas and hoped and dreams germane to

American culture and values.

We may complain about the pedantry of our prime time

television viewing, but Americans are always going to want their culture

reflected back to them. Consequently, it’s very difficult for someone not

exquisitely tuned to our culture to hold that mirror This is why any attempt to

outsource the creation of uniquely American ideas and mores for consumption of

American viewers is almost impossible. It might also explain why non-domestic

music and films generally don’t seem to do well in the U.S. mainstream. Plus,

it’s always been the people on the extremes of society, the crazies and the

outcasts, who have also been the sages and the soothsayers and foretellers and

visionaries. They are the loose cannons who have historically dared to speak

truth to power: the comedians, the satirists, the lyricists, the poets and the

creators of stage and screen and teleplays. They think and live, and therefore

write, creatively.

They are of an ilk that societies have always most adored

and most feared because they possess the two things mightier than any sword or

board room: their intimate understanding of us and their pens.

Don Merrill, Salt Lake City