Daily Herald columnist Jim Slusher: Making room for a broader letters forum

"Letters, we get letters. We get stacks and stacks of letters," went a jingle for a comedy bit on the old "Late Show with David Letterman." We get them here at the Daily Herald, too.

But unlike Letterman, we don't offer a rare missive as entertainment fodder but at least two letters a day - and sometimes many more - as a means of hosting an engaging conversation about issues people in the suburbs care about.

And, I guess I should add that in today's world, we don't get letters in "stacks and stacks" of paper but in screen after screen of electronic email. In whatever form, though, we get too many to publish them all. We consider the "Your views" letter space to be an open forum where suburban residents can share their ideas in a civil discussion with the community. It's a space for writers, to be sure, but it's also important to recognize that while we may have scores of people who offer their ideas each week, we have tens of thousands who may read them.

So to manage those diverse interests and the limitations of space, we adopt some rules and practices to help us make decisions:

• We restrict individual writers to at most one published letter a month, and we don't guarantee a specific writer can publish even that frequently. The truth is, far more than 30 writers submit pieces regularly - some as frequently as two or more a day - so if we promised these writers they could appear every 30 days, readers would hear from almost no one else nor would there be many opportunities for other writers.

• In conjunction with the once-a-month rule, we give first priority when selecting letters to writers who have not been published before or have not published recently.

• To assure variety, we strive after a point to avoid publishing letters saying the exact same thing about the same topic, though certainly certain themes may appear frequently.

• We tend to avoid publishing letters that are rude, demeaning or personal in criticizing individuals or groups.

• With certain exceptions involving taste, cviitity or hate, we do not restrict any partisan point of view. We provide writers a wide latitude for declaring or interpreting "facts," though we almost daily reject or edit letters that include obviously incorrect assertions.

• We limit letters to a maximum of 300 words and place a priority on including letters that are shorter.

Even with all these practices, we get more letters than we can publish in print. We do have, however, more flexibility online. Considering that, we've begun regularly publishing online many letters that we didn't have print space for.

If you are someone who enjoys seeing the diverse topics, expressions and points of view reflected in the letters column, don't restrict yourself to just the letters you see in print. We still stick to many of the practices and restrictions we employ in print, but even so, you'll find at our webpage www.dailyherald/discuss even more opportunities for reflection and discussion about issues you care about.

Of course, we want to hear from you if you have something to say. Write us by email at fencepost@dailyherald.com. But we also want to offer you more if you're one of the thousands who just want to see what others are saying.

@jslusher@dailyherald.com