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About letters
SEVERAI. communications have been received in recent weeks which served as a reminder that it was time to re-state some of the newspaper’s policies about letters and such.
One of the letters was a perfectly straightforward expression of opinion on a local controversy, but it lacked one important ingredient. It wasn’t signed. The News will honor letter-writers’ requests that names be withheld—often there are good and valid reasons why a person should have an opportunity to speak up without fear of losing a job or arousing a neighbor’s enmity—but we must know who sent the letter, we must be assured that the letter-writer is that confident of his point of view.
The other letter was something different. A woman complained bitterly of what she regarded as rude treatment received from a shopkeeper. Names were named, the incident was described in deatil. If it had involved a clear case of consumer interest—e.g., an instance of advertised merchandise not being available—we would have had no hesitation in printing the letter, all details all details included. But since it appeared to be merely a case of personal rudeness, we concluded that no wide public purpose would be served by printing the complaint.
We’re sure that particular customer will never darken that particular shop’s doorway again, just as we’re sure we’ll always print bona fide consumer issues when they’re presented.
FINALLY, we received another poem. Only once have we relented from a policy of not printing unsolicited poems, and, frankly, we wish we hadn’t. It’s not that we don’t like poetry, it’s just that there seems to be so many poets out there and it, would be unfair to print one submission without making space for them all.
So, please, sign your letters, address them as much as possible to public rather than personal problems, and put it in prose, not rhyme.□
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