Dear Stone Soup

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Written in January of 2022, this is a letter to the popular children's magazine Stone Soup. It is famous for exclusively publishing work by creators younger than fourteen years old. 


Dear Stone Soup, 

            

I enjoyed submitting poetry, photography, nonfiction, and fiction to you for years. My work was never published, but once I made it to the Honor Roll. I was super excited when I learned about a magazine that publishes work from kids like me! Thank you for giving young people the opportunity to share their God-given talents. 


Although I hit the age limit two years ago, I still receive your newsletter. I must say it is very well put together, but it makes me sad. I wish the leading publisher of children's work lacked blatant political bias, but it's laced throughout the company.  Strangely, every piece that addresses a controversial topic such as LGBTQ+ rights, BLM, or Covid-19 aligns perfectly with the agenda of the Democratic Party. For example, there's the essay Brain, Not Body, by Anandi Kulkarni and the two positive reviews of the book George by Samuel Phillips and Calliope Nagae. As for BLM, you published five photographs of graffiti glorifying the organization by Alana-Jain F and the poem Black by Kai Wells. And there is so much material pertaining to Covid 19, which makes sense, because it's stressful, and when creative kids are stressed, we create. But it has a common theme of vaccine promotion and is overly dramatic and unproportioned. Yes, it is heart-wrenchingly sorrowful when even one human life is lost. But we don't need to fear a virus, we've learned that much over the last two years. 


    I have a request.  I understand that perhaps you simply wish to convey different opinions, which is awesome! I believe that the freedom of speech is a right given to us by God and love to see it exercised.  However, you’re not giving all ideas a voice. You’re only giving some ideas a voice: those who follow the leftist agenda. My request is, please just publish the other side too. Let those submissions in that talk about being a persecuted Christian and recovering from Covid-19. Let the kids who believe in one race and two genders speak. 

    Please, Stone Soup, you have so much influence. Please stop pretending to accept submissions based only on talent when actually, worldview is considered too. Because the truth is, that's discrimination. 

 

 I know you may not change because of one person, but there are doubtless other people who agree with me who haven’t had time to write to you but would also like to see a change.   

 

Thank you for inspiring me and for hearing me out.

 

Sincerely, 


Jane Doe

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