Letters to the Editor

feature in many newspapers - but not all. They are  undoubtedly more common in a "democracy". 

And now of course some newspapers allow readers to comment on line - perhaps not for every story but for some.

It is not unusual for a local person to introduce me as "the person who writes the letters to the paper". It is not unusual for people I don't know to accost me about something I have written. I can only assume that someone else has pointed me out - an ancient, tricycle riding cat has to be easily recognised!

I have had letters in newspapers all over the world - but most of those occurred when I was working on getting International Literacy Year accepted as an idea. Editors seemed to like the idea - but not my attempts to translate my ideas into the local language. 

And two Saturdays in a row I have had the lead letter in our state newspaper.  Yesterday someone out for his daily walk (despite the heat) spoke to me as I was coiling up the hose. He asked,

    "Why do you write those letters Cat?"

    "I try to make people think. I try to give them an alternative point of view."

    "Well, I don't always agree with you."

    "That's all right. I don't always agree with myself. That's not the point of writing the letter."

He frowned and then asked, "But you did agree with what you were saying today?"

Yes, I did. I wrote much the same thing about asking questions here. It seems to me that asking questions and presenting alternative points of view are an important part of writing letters to any newspaper. Once in a while I have had newspaper staff contact me and say things like, "It was a good letter. We can't  publish it because...." That has usually infuriated me. All too often the reason amounts to, "We don't want the public to start thinking about another point of view."

I explained all this to the walker who had stopped to chat. He has never written a "letter to the editor" himself. He could not remember when he had last written an actual letter. He thought it might have been when he went to work for his current place of employment some thirty plus years ago. 

"And I know I got some help with that. I don't know how you do it," he told me, "You'll have to try and get a letter in that London one - you know "The Times" one. My sister's got a book about those."

Yes, I know the book - and many years ago I had three lines in that paper.  It was probably one or two lines too many. The very best letters to the editor are brief, witty and to the point.