Letters To The Editor

[fretfile100]

I read the fourth estate daily, only because I believe in the value of reporting to hold the accountable responsible. Alas it seems we get 7-8 pages of sports and many days nothing in the editorial page. I have reached the point where $300 a year is too much for what used to be a great paper.

[KenL]

As I mentioned earlier, I read my hometown paper online now because I no longer live there.

And every year they bill me, and every year the amount is more and more.

So I call them up and complain about the price, and I'll mention that it really isn't a very good paper anymore and that the price is ridiculous. They always reduce the rate to something reasonable.

This year they billed me for $240. By the time I got done arguing with them the rate for one year was 3 months free and $100 for the rest of the year.

If that paper is still around in 5 years, I'll be very surprised.

[Ralphy]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

I've not read a newspaper in over 25 years. I don't watch the news either, and yet I still manage to keep up on things. There seems to be no way around it.

Letters to the editor are a thing leftover from a bygone era where the common man still believed his voice mattered and could make a change. I think that used to be true in this country. There is a famous Norman Rockwell painting of a fellow standing up in a public council meeting that captures this spirit well. I believe those days are over and have been for a long time.

Plus one for that

[Golffishny]

I used to post a comment once in awhile to our online version of our local paper. Several years back they disabled the comments due to it becoming a nasty war of words. People just have no consideration for anyone else having an opinion. I sometimes read yahoo just to see how crazy over the top the comments are. Cheap entertainment.

[raysachs]

I think I may have had one or two letters printed in the local Philly paper over the past 30 years, but I honestly can't remember, so it very well may not have happened.

I did have two letters printed in Newsweek back when there was Time, Newsweek, and US New and that was it for news magazines. And when print was still king. One was in the aftermath of Jerry Garcia's death responding to a nasty column George Will wrote about him. I contrasted that column with the glowing column he wrote about a decade earlier about Bruce Springsteen when he misinterpreted "Born in the USA" as a gung-ho song pro-USA anthem instead of the anti-war song it actually was. A lot of my online Deadhead friends saw that and I was the toast of the online Dead community for a day or two.

The other one was about religion so I won't get into any detail here. It wasn't pro or anti any particular religion - it was just a discussion of the difference between belief and certainty and the implications of those differences. And many year later some guy from another part of the world tracked me down on Facebook and showed me a photo of a tattoo on his arm that was a short paragraph taken from that letter. He was so moved by it he had it inked onto his forearm. Kind of blew me away. Still not sure how he found me, but my name was on the letter, so I guess he did some searching.

-Ray

[H165]

It is comical to read them. I see the same names (letters must be signed) over and over. The writers all have strong opinions, and the level of kookiness is pretty high.

We have our very own local weekly newspaper. All of the above compares exactly with my community, with the added bonus that the average age here is 78. These folks aren't dumb or uneducated, just extremely opinionated and willing to write it down.

NextDoor here is exactly as described by Puddleglum, but with added local emphasis on vigilantes recording porch pirates using their Ring doorbell systems.

I've written letters to the editors in the past. I don't think any editor has ever read them. In fact, it appears to me there's no editing at all of any local newspaper copy these days.

[imwjl]

My mother in her 90s still writes letters to papers that often get much notice.

She did have a career that explains her photos with some past presidents, and was a don't often have them anymore legislator and powerful individual in state governance who sincerely got along, was collaborative, and got stuff done so she usually sends messages in that sort of spirit.

In her seniors apartment complex she's in an amazing group of associates who have that spirit and some also write letters that get noticed. That whole group is quite something. It includes two men still alive who fought on opposing sides in war. They all ask those of us who are younger to work with their spirit and philosophy of respect, and get stuff done. They are at times just horrified by dysfunction and perfect people to tell us don't be that way.

[Wade Hampton]

The Anchorage Daily News still publishes letters to the editor on a daily basis. I used to send letters in fairly often.

There’s a college professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage who’s a militant vegetarian who wrote a letter comparing hunters and fishermen to Nazis, and I wrote an indignant letter in response. Not long afterwards I ran into an acquaintance at a party who chided me for my letter. “Chided” is too mild a word; he was quite hostile. “Did you see the letter I was responding to?” I asked him. “No, I didn’t,” he said, then deliberately turned his back on me and walked away. End of conversation.

He wasn’t being fair, but I realized that fairness had nothing to do with it. From then on I decided not to write any letters to the editor unless I could do it in a way that made people laugh rather than respond with hostility. Making my points with humor rather than outrage is an altogether better strategy for me.


Wade Hampton Miller

[srick]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

He wasn’t being fair, but I realized that fairness had nothing to do with it. From then on I decided not to write any letters to the editor unless I could do it in a way that made people laugh rather than respond with hostility. Making my points with humor rather than outrage is an altogether better strategy for me.

Amen to that sentiment, Wade. Humor is a wonderful head shrink - an opportunity to step outside your box and look back in. We could use a lot more of it these days!

[Mr. Jelly]

I have written my share of letters to the editor and voiced my opinions. I even became a little known for them and people would voice their agreement to me when I was in public. People I didn't even know at times. Being in the minority as far as the sentiments of my geographic area I had to pick my words and state things in ways so that the paper would decide to run them. They also edit them even to the point of changing the meaning to the opposite of what you may have intended. Yet they put your name on it. Though it was some years ago there were some who tracked down my address and sent mail to my home to push back. They were putting me on notice that they knew where I and my family live. I can only imagine the way things would play out now.