Do you read the letters to the editor? Have you ever
written any? I have and have had a few published.
It can be an interesting and satisfying
experience. You can blow off steam at
some outrageous happening. You can take
exception to some government action. You can express your support or opposition
to someone else’s letter or editorial. Or you can try and interject some new or
novel idea into the conversation. All of
which I have tried to do over the years.
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the
right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
George Orwell
I have had letters published in the Ottawa Citizen,
The Globe and Mail, the Peterborough Examiner, and the Halifax Chronicle
Herald. The Peterborough Examiner is my current go-to site. My most successful endeavour
was probably a letter titled, “The Orphan Monument” in the Halifax paper. It
was aimed at getting some action on a monument in Point Pleasant Park in
Halifax consisting of an anchor from HMCS Bonaventure that includes plaques of sailors
and airmen who had lost their lives in service during peacetime. The monument was deteriorating but nobody would
take any responsibility for repairing it. My letter spurred a long editorial of
support alongside my letter. Within a
matter of weeks, a number of entities had come together to make a plan and have
the monument refurbished. A very satisfying
outcome.
Not all letters will have much response. You are lucky if someone responds to your
letter, even if they disagree with you. At least you know that someone has
taken the time to read your letter.
“When everyone is against you, it means that
you are absolutely wrong-- or absolutely right.”
- Albert Guinon
My latest crusade is a very unpopular city government decision
to despoil a lovely park with 16 pickleball courts and a parking lot while
losing open space and baseball diamonds used by city teams and local kids,
while costing the taxpayers millions of dollars. Unfortunately, I have not
convinced the city council to rethink their decision. You can’t win them all.
Maybe you should give letter writing to your favourite
outlet a try. At least it gets you
thinking.
“The capacity of human beings to bore one
another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.”
- H. L. Mencken
