As Blog for Iowa notes our 20th year, I looked and found this is my 1,220th post here. My first post was on Feb. 25, 2009, and by any measure, that’s a lot of writing. What I value more, though, is I am approaching the 50th anniversary of my first letter to the editor of a newspaper. I laid out why it is important to write to newspapers in a recent letter to the editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

I wrote my first letter to the editor of a newspaper in 1974, so I’m approaching my 50th anniversary of letter writing. What do I make of this?

I appreciate the editors of the Cedar Rapids Gazette for publishing a daily letters section. Fewer daily papers do that in 2024, if they even remained in business.

Before social media rose to fill our every need to chat, the Gazette rose to become a dominant Iowa newspaper by circulation. To a letter writer, that means a reach of more than 30,000 subscribers. Social media can’t compare to that for everyday folk like me.

The Gazette’s readers are engaged. I get feedback about my letters from community members in person, via email, and on social media posts. Over the years I had my share of anonymous hate mail based on something I wrote. A letter writer seeks such engagement if nothing else.

Finally, the opinion page editors will reject a letter that is poorly worded, or overcome by events. They exercise a gentle editor’s hand which improves my original composition. I rarely complain about editors and usually accept their edits as reasonable.

Who knows how long I will continue to write? I’m sure some have had enough of my opinions. In a society that is increasingly complex, where more people are having opinions, letters to the editor remain an important part of public dialogue.

I wrote 50 years worth. Now it’s your turn.

~ Published in the March 29, 2024 edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.