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Sorry, we don't read minds I just returned from a morning of shooting around town. While I was out, I received a call on my cell phone from editor John McGhie, informing me of a situation he wanted me to cover before I returned to the office. "A lady called in to tell us about a protest the dairy farmers are holding at Neilson's," he said, "Have you heard anything about that?" Being a member of the farming community myself, I do often have an ear to the ground that picks up on issues like that. "Nope, haven't heard a thing," I replied. John went on to say how the lady who called was annoyed with the newspaper, as the farmers had been protesting for four days, yet we hadn't bothered to cover their event. "She said, `You have reporters and photographers available to cover a fatal accident, yet can't be bothered covering the dairy farmers'." John replied, "No one from the dairy farmers or even the public had called in to inform us of the protest." She then said, "This is the public calling in now," and admitted she was a dairy farmer. "Okay," said John, "I can send Ted out. What is your name and number so we can make contact with you." "I'm remaining anonymous," she said. With the very best intentions, I headed over to Neilson's, and after checking out both entrances to the Georgetown plant, I found not one farmer protesting. And that annoyed me to no end. I'm one of the first people to try to build awareness of the plight of farmers in Ontario, and having my own deep roots in the farm community, I feel a certain connection with those people. What infuriates me is the fact that we have people like this `anonymous caller" who calls in to bitch and complain about the lack of coverage, yet never took the initiative to inform us that the event was even taking place. Sorry folks, but the batteries in our ESP mind readers have gone flat... And when that same someone has the audacity to call in and rip a strip off us because we covered an accident that resulted in the deaths of two people, yet didn't drop by the protest (that we hadn't even been informed of) then I get downright angry. To top it off, when that same caller doesn't even have the guts to give a name or number-- well, my sympathy level drops significantly. I have told people more times than I choose to remember-- I'd much rather hear about something twice, than not at all. That way, I can at least do something about covering it. And if you haven't called in and talked to any one of the five editorial people who work at The Independent & Free Press to tell them about the event, then you don't have the right to jump on an editor because we haven't covered your story. I put my name on this column every week, and sometimes I say things here that annoy my readers. And sometimes they call me on it. But I still put my name on it. If this caller doesn't have the guts to give out her name, then I can only say one thing. Her event doesn't mean much to her-- so why should it mean anything to me? (Ted Brown can be reached at tbrown@independentfreepress.com)