EDITORIAL

Whose opinion matters most? Well yours, of course

Posted

Sept. 25, 1690 was a special day in this country — it was the day the newspaper was born.

Publick Occurences, Both Forreign and Domestick doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but two Boston men — Richard Pierce and Benjamin Harris — published this newspaper for the first time. It also had another first to its credit: It was the first newspaper to fold, lasting just one issue.

It’s not that Pierce and Harris bit off more than they could chew, or that they were competing with the internet. Instead, it was the government that got in the way — they didn’t have a license to print, and thus, they were shut down by the British-controlled colonial government.

Luckily, we’ve come a long way since then, and thanks to the First Amendment, we don’t have to wait for the government to give us permission to share the news — or express our opinion.

This space has been used to do just that throughout the past year, and really, for the past nearly 70 years. And surrounding this space were opinions far more important than ours: Yours.

We welcomed 215 different authors to these pages in 2018. Some became familiar additions to these pages, while others stopped by occasionally, or maybe even just once to express their views.

Topics covered the elections, construction projects like the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, demolition fiascoes like that of 2395 Palisade Ave., to what should happen in our parks, what’s happening on the community board, and even from time to time taking us to task.

We welcome each and every one of them, and if it weren’t for you, our Opinion pages would never be possible. Literally.

As has been a tradition at this paper for many years, we want to thank the more than 200 people who shared their thoughts with their fellow readers over the course of 2018. And a special shout-out to those authors who’ve actually had more than 10 letters printed this year: Alan Saks, Adam Stoler and Richard Warren.

Want to see your name included in this list for 2019? Get your pen to paper now, and share your thoughts. Email them to letters@riverdalepress.com, and be sure to include your name (which we publish), and an address and contact phone number (which we do not publish).

We want to hear from you!

In the meantime, we are extremely grateful to these authors who penned more than 140,000 words this year — the most we’ve had in a single year in recent memory — and we hope to publish even more once 2019 gets underway.

 

T

hank you to:

James Accordino, Karen Argenti, Cynthia Armstrong, Sierra Arral, Samanda Ascher.

Serena Baroudi, Uriel Barzel, Bill Baskin, Jane Bedell, Peter Beitchman, Bob Bender, John Benfatti, Betty Berenson, Alessandra Biaggi, Ira Bigeleisen, Gene Binder, Pauline Binder, Paul Birnbaum, Pamela Boyle, Sam Bromberg, David Brown, Stephen Budihas, Deirdre Burke, Kathleen Burke, David Bush.

Anthony Capote, David Carlson, Ethan Casey III, Dimitri Cavalli, Ellen Chapnick, Stephanie Coggins, Andrew Cohen, Ed Cohen, Kristina Coleman, Barbara Connolly, Suzanne Corber, Barbara Curran, Corian Cusick.

James Dalton, Theresa Daly, Lisa Daub, Shifra Dayak, Lou Deholczer, Roxanne Delgado, Irene Diaz-Reyes, Eric Dinowitz, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Kelley Dixon, Alexey Dmitriyev, Sue Ellen Dodell, Deborah Dolan, Dennis Donofrio, Robert Drake, Vonetta Dudley, Sharen Duke, Mark Dunlea.

Paul Ellis, Eliot Engel, Stewart Epstein, Adriano Espaillat, Barbara Estrin, Isaac Evans-Frantz.

Zelda Fassler, Bruce Feld, Ellen Feld, Ted Fettman, Sharyn Finnegan, Jennifer Firestone, Eileen Fisher, Judy Fletcher, Anthony Freda, Rita Freed.

Larry Gevirtz, Angela Gill, Rosemary Ginty, Michael Goldblum, Samuel Goldman, Patty Goldstein, Alvin Gordon, Karen Green, Josh Greenfield, Danny Guenzburger.

Howie Hawkins, Miriam Helbok, Michael Heller, Susan Hesse, Peter Hieman, Ariana Holback, Leslie Hogan, Avrum Hyman.

Rob Jacklosky, David Jaspen, Sura Jeselsohn, Peter Joseph.

Bernadette Kappen, Andy Katz, Valeria Kaufman, Chaim Kesler, Sasha Kesler, Yosef Kessler, Peter Kines, CeCe King, Jeff Klein, David Knapp, Dee Knight, David Kornbluh, Harry Kresky, Helen Krim.

Berel Lang, Derickson Lawrence, Gerald Lebowitz, Ira Levenberg, Celia Lewis, Jonathan Lewis, Faye Lieman.

Bob Mahony, Naomi Marcus, Steve Markbreiter, Tim Markbreiter, Jack Marth, Randi Martos, Rachel Mesch, Barbara Miller, Martin Miller, Charles Moerdler, Phyllis Murray, Evelyn Mutnick.

Newman Nalpers, Niles Neusbaum, Judy Noy.

Catherine O’Brien, Phoebe O’Connor, John ODonohue, Vivian Oleen, Julianna Orgel, Sy Oshinsky.

Dan Padernacht, Dean Parker, Lynda Paull, Karen Pence, Larry Penner, Mitch Perle, Debbie Peters, Bonnie Press, Wayne Price, Penny Prince, Cynthia Prisco, Sandra Prosnitz.

Bismarck Quashie, Steven Rabinowitz, Marilyn Reinhardt, Christopher Rizzo, Amy Joy Robateau, Beth Rosen, Neil Rosenfeld, Matilda Rostoker, Bob Rubinstein.

Alan Saks, Marc Sawyer, Jennifer Scarlott, Philip Schatz, Bart Schiavo, Deborah Schiavo, Philip Schweitzer, Frances Segan, David Seidner, Elizabeth Shanklin, Edward Shapiro, Gabrielle Shatan, Tracy Shelton, John Siegal, Steve Siegelbaum, George Silos, Laura Spalter, Rob Spalter, Jennifer Sproull, Eleanor Squadron, Cliff Stanton, Aaron Stayman, Bernard Stein, Richard Stein, Wendy Steinberg, Adam Stoler, Bill Stone, James Strain, Carol Stricker.

Joel Tankel, Christina Taylor, Andrea Tekirian, Farris Thomas, Jess Torres, Ron Trenkler-Thomson, Matthew Turov.

Katherine Valyi, Rhea Varadi, Judith Veder, Bruce Volpe.

Alfred Waddell, Deborah Wallace, Richard Warren, Cliff Weathers, Ron Wegsman, Eben Weiss, Catherine Wolf, Dale Wolff, Maurice Wolfthal, Martin Wolpoff, Dave Wuchinich.

Ed Yaker, Marcia Yerman.

Kip Zegers, Martin Zelnik, Madeline Zevon, Richard Zucker.

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