Keep it civil folks

6 comments June 9th, 2008

Today I received an e-mail from a person who recently had a letter to the editor published. The writer had received an anonymous letter threatening him.

It’s not the first time that I’ve heard of a letter writer being threatened. There was a writer who received a couple of nasty phone calls and another who received a series of ugly e-mails.

It’s OK to disagree with a person’s opinion, but you should do so in a polite, respectful manner. When writers are accosted either verbally or via the mail, it discourages them from writing again. That limits public discourse and is a disservice to all of us.