In this week’s issue we are publishing 28 Letters to the Editor, most of them addressing the upcoming runoff elections in the East and Estates Property Owners’ Associations. We believe that residents need a forum in which to discuss the issues of the day, and during an “election season” such as this there is a great variety of points of view.

Frankly, we think the letters column is one of the most interesting parts of the job, and during what has been a somewhat difficult week due to computer problems (hard drive failures on two machines and a virus on a third, not to mention network issues) opening each day’s letters has been a high point.

One of the reasons that we think our letters column is a useful resource to the community is that we rarely allow letter writers to remain anonymous. We only withhold names if the writer has a solid reason for anonymity such as concerns about privacy of a special needs child or if the employment of the writer or a family member might be jeopardized.

In our spare time we participate in several online forums related to some special interests, and we find that the ones in which contributors are allowed to hide behind anonymous “screen names” often have a lot of name calling and sniping. But on forums in which people have to use real names, the discourse remains at a much more civil, and informative, level.

We hope our readers enjoy the letters and would encourage everyone who wants to participate to send us some more mail!

Meg Morgan Norris

Publisher