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St. Cloud State University
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What happens when we don't get letters...
By Mike Lauterbach
Published:
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
There's an old saying that for every person who writes a letter to the editor, there are 10 who thought about it and didn't write.
So, every time that Andy decides to threaten some squirrels, about 70 people think about writing. Call it freedom of the press in action. Of course we welcome every letter, whether it's about squirrels or Iraq.
But for two issues, I haven't gotten a single publishable letter that's been verified. Maybe it's just the warm weather-everyone would rather see me sit inside on a sunny Sunday afternoon to fill the space than do it themselves. Or maybe it's a sign that we've been doing okay-that our writers have been taking care of business, our columns have been so well argued that no one can hold up against them, and that the editorial board has been so dead on that no disagreement exists. Or maybe nobody cares.
I like to think it means we've been doing a good job. Write in if you think I'm wrong.
I got a letter the other day as a response to Coley's article about diabetes from a prof here at SCSU. I won't say who it is, since it was addressed to me, but this person liked Coley's article but was upset because it was in the place of the letters to the editor section. She went on to say how important a resource that part of the page was to the SCSU community, and even suggested that I use part of the space now allotted to columnists to print more letters.
In a way, this letter was very heartening. It's great to see that someone agrees that the Opinion page is a valuable resource to everyone at SCSU. Even though it was a complaint in some sense, it was great to hear that someone is out there enjoying what we spend all this time putting it together twice a week.
In another way, it was very disheartening. I could be wrong, but I don't believe I've printed a letter from that person while I've been editor.
If someone who understands the value of the page so well doesn't contribute, how can we expect a casual reader or someone who doesn't understand the process so well to write in?
I know there must be more people out there like that professor (remember, 10 more people thought about writing what she did). This PBS-style appeal is for those folks.
Please, if you feel you get something from the columnists or from the people who have decided to write letters, take some time and give something back. Contribute something to the dialogue, and don't feel that you have to respond to something else. We're all students or academics here, and we're here to learn. When someone keeps the benefit of their experience to themselves, we all lose.
If you don't, the consequences could be severe. We may be forced to enlist Brother Jed for a regular column, or make Andy and Joe write the whole paper every week. Nobody wants to see that happen, least of all Andy and Joe.
And as an added bonus if you do, I'll do something that PBS would never promise to do. I will place my hand on my iMac and swear never to put a PBS-style appeal in the paper again.
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