Feature stories by Rehagen, Martel & Manteuffel

There's three great pieces of writing I came across a week or so ago from a few random sources thanks to the wonder that is links via twitter.

For The Washingtonian, Rachel Manteuffel wrote "The Things They Leave Behind: Artifacts From the Vietnam Veterans Memorial", a remarkable piece that's touching in it's own right, and downright tragic when coupled with the accompanying pictures of objects left.

Additionally, Ned Martel did "Holocaust survivor tailors an American success story" in the Washington Post. It's a very cool story of someone dedicated to perfecting his craft in the person of D.C. tailor Martin Greenfield.

Finally, "This Land Is My Land" was published for Atlanta Magazine by Tony Rehagen. I first heard of Rehagen in July of this year with his piece "Daddy Blues" and this latest effort is a fascinating tale that features the subtitle "In the high country of North Georgia, an old bootlegger and a gun merchant feuded for years over a quarter-mile property line. It ended in the worst possible way."

Profound Writing - Cooper on Coming Out, Rehagen on New Fatherhood & Dinard on a Lifesaving Event

There's been a few different cases of excellent writing I've seen lately that all fit into the profound / important category.

Most recent was an e-mail from CNN Journalist Anderson Cooper that he allowed to be posted online. From Andrew Sullivan's news site The Daily Beast, Anderson Cooper: "The Fact Is, I'm Gay" features a very well written note from Cooper that concludes with "I still consider myself a reserved person and I hope this doesn’t mean an end to a small amount of personal space. But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter’s shield of privacy."

On the Fatherhood topic I love to read and post on, a few days ago I came across the piece "Daddy Blues" by Tony Rehagen for Atlanta Magazine. It was very cool writing on something that can be both incredibly rewarding and difficult to deal with.

Finally, a very short piece with heft to it was "Toiling in Obscurity" for the site FlipCollective. Tom Dinard writes in it of a stopping a large display case from falling on a toddler. It's an emotional piece that's made all the more interesting with nobody noticing the lifesaving act made.