Post Scripts: Remembering some Letters to Editor

It was my "pleasure" during the time I edited the Gallatin newspaper to publish some unusually grumpy letters to the editor. To be fair, however, I received many letters which were complimentary or far too sweet to allow me to share them with subscribers. During the Big Dam controversy I had to file some of my mail in asbestos wrappers.

One of my favorite pastimes here in Texas is reading the "letters to the editor" in The Austin American Statesman and The San Marcos Daily Record, the latter publication being one of the saddest examples of a newspaper I’ve ever seen. I’ll spare you the details, but trust me.

The big newspapers, of course, get hundreds of letters, e-mails, faxes and phone calls weekly and can only print a smattering of the lot. Editors try to exercise good judgment, good taste and common sense in selecting the letters to be published. Has anyone ever fallen for those E-mail letters from Africa promising you a part of a $30 million family fortune if you will just submit your bank account number so the money can be deposited?

I hope not!

Politics are never out of season. The stranger the letter is, the better. A Texas man running for a third party says he will do something about volcanoes if elected. He will demand, if elected, the Corps of Engineers harness volcanoes by using nuclear explosions. Another man, after losing his bid for governor, wrote: "I had a few problems with my campaign. Few people knew I was running, and those who did don’t vote. That can really be detrimental to a campaign."

A troubled reader wrote the Austin newspaper: "Regarding your story about the newlyweds. I recently had my wife of six months divorce me and I adopted a one-legged rooster named Mary. Was hoping you’d write a story about us." Another reader wrote this to the editor: "I’m bothered by the Statesman’s liberal attitude. I wonder if this is not part of a conspiracy to stop religious organizations from selling tickets to The Kingdom of Heaven."

News content gets licks, too. A reader upset about an article in the paper he considered close-minded wrote: "You are so incredibly dumb and short-sighted, you journalists. This is the beginning of the end of the human species."

And finally, a writer wrote: "Chances are you are correct in stating that many of your letter writers are nuts. I submitted three superbly composed conservative letters during 2003 but none were printed. This leads me to believe that you editors have a socialistic, peasant-loving, environmental whacko, homophylic feminazi, baby-killing bias. Happy New Year.

The only letter I ever received that really offended me was the one that read: "It’s just too bad your mother didn’t drop you when you were born." That was a viewpoint expressed in one of the dam letters I received ‘way back when.