ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 28, 1996 TAG: 9603280012
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: TALKING IT OVER
To the Editori: I AM WRITING in response to your ``Letters to the Editor'' page, particularly the letters you have published regarding the April 2 bond referendum.
On March 14, you printed four against, one in favor. On March 15, you printed three against, one in favor.
Is your mail really running three-to-one and four-to-one against this bond issue? Now, that would be a fact of interest to the entire Roanoke County voting population!
Or are you promoting your own political agenda in the ``letters'' section as well as in the editorial section, where the opinions of the newspaper editors and publishers are supposed to be kept?
Also, I'd like to know if you realize that even your headlines about this topic are negative.
We who live in Roanoke County are all in this together.
Those of us in Southwest County aren't a bunch of wealthy indolents who manage our investments and spend our time at the club or nail salon.
This is certainly our image from the articles and letters in The Roanoke Times, and I'd like it to be corrected.
RUTH FENDLEY
ROANOKE
Our Reply: ACTUALLY, we've gotten more letters against than for the bond referendum, but not by three-to-one or four-to-one. The letters we've published roughly reflect the proportion of responses received on both sides.
Are we promoting our own political agenda in publishing letters from opponents? No. The newspaper's editorial board supports the bond issue. We've published three editorials urging voters in Roanoke County to pass it.
In printing opposing letters, we are, however, promoting another agenda. We regard the Opinion and Commentary pages not just as the newspaper's mouthpiece, but as a forum in which wide-ranging viewpoints can find discussion and debate. And so, while we can't print all the letters we receive - we get far too many - we do give priority to publishing letters and columns whose opinions differ from those expressed in our editorials.
As to the headlines, they're intended to reflect the views of the letter writers, not our opinion of what the letters say.
- The editors
The Last Word: THANK YOU for clarifying your use of the Opinion and Commentary pages. As a reader, I can only see what you print and have no way to know how representative it is of the mail you receive. My concern is that, as the only newspaper in town, you are in a unique position to influence public opinion.
All parents in Roanoke County want the best for their children. Economic growth and educational opportunity go hand-in-hand. The growth in the Southwest section benefits the entire county. Unfortunately, the letters I read seemed to play up territorial competition. Certainly those concerns cannot be ignored, but I hoped you would encourage unity and commonality of purpose. If we stand against one another within the county, no one will prosper.
- R.F.
Ruth A. Fendley, a homemaker, is a member of the Green Valley Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 linesby CNB