Editorial:

Keep the letters coming

Posted 1/24/23

We’ve had a nice influx of letters to the editor recently, many regarding the state legislature. It’s great to see, as it drives home a core function of a newspaper, to be a community …

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Editorial:

Keep the letters coming

Posted

We’ve had a nice influx of letters to the editor recently, many regarding the state legislature. It’s great to see, as it drives home a core function of a newspaper, to be a community forum. 

Letters to the editor have been around since American newspapers have. Benjamin Franklin wrote letters under a pseudonym — we require true full names now — when the colonies were still under British rule in the mid 18th century.

Getting the thoughts of local residents into print has been a feature of the Powell Tribune since the early days. Well before there was an official opinion page and letters to the editor as we would recognize them today, staff at the paper in 1928 were writing that Bobbie  Burns had come into the office to say that those hauling trash to the new dump beyond the cemetery were blocking the road.

And J. P. Callahan made his opinion known to Tribune staff in the same paper that he thought the soil in Powell was getting “powerfully dry.”

Now it’s generally people peppering our inboxes with emailed letter submissions, but it’s still a highlight of our day to see what our readers think about a wide variety of topics both local and national.

This is your paper, your forum to both read the news of the day, see locals’ faces and, if you’re in the mood, to provide your own take on an issue.

In America’s late colonial era, it was letters to the editors of the major colonial newspapers in places such as Boston, Philadelphia and New York, along with pamphlets, that helped set the spark of revolution.

Even if your letter is simply to comment on issues in town or critique a local legislator’s proposed bill, we value it.

So, keep them coming.

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