Last week I received a letter from a Hood River retiree who chided me for typos and other journalistic deficiencies, and for my occasional practice of writing about that fact that I enjoy sending letters and postcards. That’s fine, happy for the feedback, and everyone is entitled to their opinion.
This week we received an anonymous letter at the newsroom from someone who took issue with an article, asked a lot of questions, but failed to sign it. We can’t do anything with an anonymous letter, and the fact that the writer lacked the fortitude to put their name on it does not exactly inspire us to give it any more than minimal attention.
Oh, scratch that. We round-filed it.
Another reader recently wrote (not for publication, but at least they signed their name) that we should do more to vet “the stupid letters.”
Well, if a letter is 350 words or less, not evidently erroneous and clearly not malicious — and it is signed — it’s pretty much a lock to get into print.
Ultimately publication is at our discretion, but we don’t pick and choose based on some “aesthetic merit” or “intelligence register.” (And certainly not based on political argument.) Those are gates we will not keep. Hey, one man’s stupid is another man’s Pulitzer, right?
Letters. We receive plenty of them, and it seems like readers have been on a roll lately. Keep them coming.
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Then we got another letter, from a college student, Morgan Wenninger of Mankato, Minn., asking for … letters.
We can get behind that.
It reads this way: “My name is Morgan and I am a junior at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minn., where I am studying to become a teacher.
“I am writing you because I need your help. For my Teaching Social Studies class, my old school professor would like us to learn about your town but without the use of the Internet.
“If your readers take some time to send me letters, facts, pictures, etc., anything that would help me learn about your town, I’d really appreciate it. I’m interested in anything that makes your town unique, either from the past, present or looking into the future.
“Letters can be sent to me at the following address: Morgan Wenninger, 700 Luther Dr., Mankato, MN 56001. Thank you.”
Let’s tell Morgan about Hood River County. Here is a portion of what I will say, via a local postcard:
“Hood River is a city of readers, hardly unique in that way, but unique in that seven years ago we closed our library for a year for lack of funding, and in the past six years it has steadily renewed itself as a place of learning, community activity, and civic engagement, a place both fun and enlightening.”
Send Megan your letter or postcard. Then, if you care to, email me what you tell her.
If I receive enough back, I’ll print examples; it would be interesting to all readers to know what you told this young woman from Minnesota.
All I ask is that you give us your name.
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“Old school” Editor Kirby Neumann-Rea does write a lot of letters and postcards. He can be reached at P.O. Box 390, Hood River, or kneumannrea@hoodrivernews.com.
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