Explaining Press letters policy

To the Editor:

I am new to Riverdale, one year in. When I arrived, I was told to be sure to subscribe to The Riverdale Press, which I did. How fortunate the area is to have a hometown newspaper, weekly at that! 

Because experience in community news reporting has taught me the importance of staying informed, I read The Press cover to cover. What flummoxes me are the published Letters to the Editor. Admittedly, I don’t know the undercurrents of local politics; from my reading, I’m not sure I want to. 

Ideally, news is based on FACT, sparse in many media outlets today. Publishing opposing opinions hopefully encourages vital critical thinking skills to inform voters. The ability to sort out truth and fact is essential today to preserve our democracy and freedom. Bellicose undercurrent corrupts with its disruptive and questionable narrative. 

Absorbing the emotional nastiness that permeates some readers’ letters is trying. Equally difficult to understand is why The Press publishes these vitriolic volleys. Name-calling, insinuations and personal affronts should be verboten; those are childish games based on emotion and bias. 

Prospecting for solutions to improve the status quo in 2024 is vital, as is positive discourse, without theories or what-ifs, but feasible thought-provoking possibilities and action. Equally important is encouraging millennial and Gen Z involvement; the future is theirs. They must grapple with solutions to the inherited chaos and polarization octogenarians have left behind.

(Editor’s note: It has been the policy of The Press to “publish virtually all the letters we receive.” That is because your opinion is the most important opinion in this newspaper.)

Noel Leicht