Letters to the editor create a powerful citizens' forum

In a May 7 letter to the editor Tracey Phillips described herself as distraught. Who wouldn't be? During a brief beach trip to Sullivan's Island, she'd lost three years of dissertation preparation and coursework on a tiny flash drive attached to her key ring. But the morning after her letter was published her gloom was gone Our photographer captured a joyful Tracey rushing to embrace a Daniel Island police officer.

The accompanying story detailed her efforts to find the key ring over the previous 12 days. Fortunately, near the end of her search she heeded a suggestion that she contact the newspaper. Her account of her unusual loss became the lead letter and was read by a Daniel Island woman who dropped the key ring off at the police station — flash drive intact. Once again, the positive power of letters to the editor was reaffirmed.

To be sure, the action readers can generate in the letters forum goes far beyond lost and found items — as personally significant as they may be. Readers' letters are the source of important input from the community. They also can provide some of a newspaper's best copy.

In fact, one of the most arresting accounts of living through Hurricane Hugo came from a feisty, long-time preservationist, the late Eleanor Pringle Hart, a regular letter writer.

At age 79, she decided to stay, alone on the second floor of a huge home near The Battery that had been converted into condominiums. From her Evening Post account in which she detailed the events of that frightening day and night: "But the wind is increasing and the house is shaking. I myself am very tired but still I feel we old things, my house and I, will take care of each other. As though to test me, great gusts come, and we rock."

When I became editor of The Evening Post in 1981, I noted that our letters volume was considerably less than that of the morning newspaper. While recognizing the differences in circulation size, I still theorized that readers who were fired up over issues early in the day were more likely to sound off — on paper, at least, — than those who read the newspaper while winding down. The Golden Pen Award was initiated, in part, to encourage more Post letter writers.

It proved so rewarding, not only to the monthly winners, but to the editorial staff — which makes the decision on a consensus basis — that it was continued when the newspapers merged. At the annual luncheon, the winners talk about their letters, including the impact their publication has had on themselves and others. Some of those stories would impress even the most jaded.

There's no question that one of the most important aspects of letters is their potential to empower average citizens to address wrongs or make significant change. In fact, there is ample evidence to show just how high the letters are on many politicians' reading lists.

One of many examples: Others had urged that some sort of flexible traffic dividers be installed on the now demolished Silas Pearman Bridge to prevent more harrowing, head-on accidents. But action came only after a 2001 letter from Marshall Shoemaker, a Mount Pleasant reader who happened on a deadly collision. His powerful description of that tragedy in an open letter to the transportation department's executive director got renewed public and political attention. The dividers were installed.

More recently, there is no question that community sentiment was reflected in the flood of impassioned letters decrying the design of the proposed Clemson architectural center on George Street. Those letters played a major role in the school's decision to shelve that controversial plan and change the building's location.

Editors struggle with and readers are frustrated by some of the restrictions that must be imposed on letters that involve not only legal concerns, but length, frequency, accuracy and civility.

But those problems pale in comparison to the importance of providing a responsible, accountable citizens' forum for the exchange of information and ideas and the opportunity for all members of this community to have their thoughts matter.

Barbara S. Williams is editor emeritus of The Post and Courier. E-mail her at bwilliams@postandcourier.com.