A thank you to our writers

So often we hear complaints about the information age bringing us little more than an echo chamber of opinion in which commentators hide behind a veil of anonymity.

You — our letter writers — are the antidote to that predicament.

Each week, we fill these pages with your meaningful feedback on our stories, your two cents on issues of local, national and international importance and the exchanges between you and your neighbors.

Your contributions not only help paint a complete picture of the area, they help maintain an intimacy between Riverdale Press reporters and you — the readers — that is the lifeblood of community journalism.

It is because of these and other personal interchanges that to us you are not simply faceless, nameless readers. You are Richard Gilbert, Kristin Hart, Alvin Gordon, Margaret Groarke, Bruce Snowden, Nicky Enright.

We eagerly open your e-mails and letters when we receive them — just like kids on Christmas might open a gift. And we firmly believe that other readers feel the same.

The open forum we provide — we print plenty of letters that make us mad, sad and some that even baffle us — encourages politicians and leaders in civic life to address you directly on these pages. And the results of your missives can be felt when other writers coalesce behind an idea or use submissions as a way to argue a point with a person they would otherwise have no opportunity to engage with.

We do not pick and choose our correspondents and we edit only for length and basic clarity — we open these pages up to all and print nearly every letter or Points of View column we receive. If you don’t like something that you read, we encourage you to write your own letter that counters what you consider bad speech with good speech.

These days, there are many ways to make your voices heard. You can comment on stories on our website, you can engage your neighbors on our Facebook page, but most importantly, you can write in to our print publication.