Thank you, correspondents

It’s that time of year again when we thank all our letter writers for advancing conversation in the community. 

The day may be dawning when elec- trons on a screen, not ink on paper, will convey the news to you. But ink is not the lifeblood of a newspaper; the rumble of a printing press is not its heartbeat. Its life is found in the relationship between the newspaper and its readers.

The vitality of The Riverdale Press is in connecting a disparate community. It’s about helping people to know one another and working together to make Riverdale/Kingsbridge a place anyone and everyone would want to live. The results can be seen in how readers respond generously to help feed hungry people here in our neighborhood after hearing about shortages at the Kings- bridge-Riverdale-Marble Hill Food and Hunger Project, or come out to support the workers at the now-closed Stella D’oro plant. 

It’s in the calendar of activities that keeps readers informed of the doings and plans of local civic, religious and cultural organizations and in the record of milestones and accomplishments that families want to share with neighbors.

But most of all, the lifeblood of this newspaper is in the dialogue that helps shape our neighborhood’s character — the arguments and interchanges on our opinion pages.

The Press does not pick and choose among its correspondents, favoring letters from the well known, the expert or the public figure, or rejecting the offerings of those who do not write in an elegant or elevated style.

This newspaper opens its letters and “Point of view” columns to all. It publishes virtually every letter it receives.

Too often, people feel excluded from communal life. Believing that public par ticipation is a citizens’ duty, we’re proud to provide a forum that allows everyone to participate. Some of the ways people choose to make use of that forum make us angry and some make us sad. But if at times a letter is used to revile or di- vide, the answer is to respond, to offer good ideas to counter bad ones.