Letters out of order?
To the Editor:
I find it funny that a satire column is being written by an editor of a newspaper, stating that the words written in print are not to be held to a true or honesty standard. Yet letters to the editor cannot be written by fictitious persons and no date received is printed with it?
I find it funny because I write letters to the editor and somehow the letter gets lost, or on hold, at least for a while and an article written by someone else, gets printed about exactly what I am writing about in my letter to the editor. I could be vain or mistaken, yet it is interesting sometimes what appears to happen. And then miraculously the letter comes out weeks after the second article stating something different that the first article, and has been read by the public before the letter I sent in, is printed.
And consequently renders my letter either redundant or repetitive, only because it's been printed out of chronological time order, the response letter should have been printed before any new article with the same content. In order for this to happen another person must be shown the letter before it is printed and has time for a response or answer in their own article. Oh, the power of the press. But it is a win, win, to myself, my letter (printed later on) and an article by someone else, means it is good, my words being read and taken seriously, hopefully to change one persons view or perspective about the subject. So be careful public, because when writing letters, some may end up at the editor's desk where some, but not all letters go into a coma for a while.
Catherine A. Lair
Editor's response: Letters don't go into comas but they do wait for space when they are long. And admittedly some do get lost. The volume of letters does not always permit me time to get a letter in just after a story has appeared but I do try to get letters on current subjects in a soon as possible. And, Catherine, I have printed many, many of your letters. You seem to think that I sit around at my desk going through letters and tossing one in the "print" box and others in the "coma" box. Not so. It's a big part of my day keeping up with all the letters we get, getting them formatted, reading through them, figuring out which will fit in the varying spaces each day I have for letters and trying my best to print them in the order they come in. I don't have time to play with them too.