While the summer is normally quiet in the Sedona area, we’ve had a number of major news events that have come to the fore, be it vacation rentals and a recent meeting about them with a state lawmaker, the Museum Fire north of Flagstaff sending smoke into the Sedona area, the first Sedona In Motion construction project in Uptown, ongoing hotel rezoning issues in the Village of Oak Creek and the Verde Connect road project between Beaverhead Flat Road and State Route 260.
We’ve had scores of comments on our social media pages, but not everyone uses social media, and many residents do not see these comments if they never visit that particular story on our online page.
If you want neighbors to read your opinions, tell us your thoughts via a letter to the editor. When we can fill our paper with readers’ opinions, we know we’re doing good work and we have readers who are concerned about their community and want to use our Page 4A like a forum to express their ideas to the rest of Sedona, the Village of Oak Creek and the surrounding Verde Valley communities.
We run letters from all sides of the political spectrum and letters that disagree with my editorials or public officials’ statements. Letters discussing a local issue or addressing a national issue in a local context take priority over letters solely addressing national issues.
The rules for our letters are relatively simple:
300-Word Limit
Letters must be 300 words or less. Our word limit is a strict one. If letters are slightly over, we’ll cut them to fit, but if letters are more than 350 words, we’ll ask the authors to cut them and resubmit. We’d rather have the authors determine which points they want to make rather than guess.
If your letter covers several topics and runs 600 words, consider breaking it up and sending in two letters addressing each topic. The more timely letter will run first and the second will run a few weeks later.
Name, Street Address, Phone Number
Letters must include the author’s name, street address and phone number, in case we have a question and to properly include the author’s name and hometown at the end of the letter.
No Anonymous Letters
No anonymous letters have been nor ever will be published in our newspaper. Don’t even bother sending them in. When our staff can’t find an author’s name on a unsigned letter, they go right into the recycle bin, unread. Our readers don’t see your views either.
Additionally, if you call or email us news tips, don’t do so “anonymously.” We reporters and editors need to know who you are so we can determine if your material is valid. Readers never need to know where we got tips or documents — reporters are notoriously tight-lipped and sometimes go to jail rather than reveal the names of sources, so we can be trusted to protect your identity if necessary.
If you spend the time writing to us, have the courage to put your name, address, phone number and email address on the letter so we can contact you if we have questions or need clarification.
No Personal Attacks
No personal attacks. You can certainly address previous letters, but direct your commentary on the letter’s content,ot the author.
Elected officials are not “private citizens” but rather “public figures” in their official capacity, so the rules are looser because they operate in the public rather than private sphere. When people criticize “the mayor,” they are in fact criticizing “the chair” not “the person.”
Yet remember that ranting against a politician doesn’t win readers to your side of an argument like a logical analysis about his or her behavior does.
Guest Perspective
Guest perspectives are reserved for elected officials and experts in the field the letter covers. Guest perspectives are also reserved for people representing a government agency or organization making an official statement.
Document Your Facts
Letters citing facts must have supporting documents. If you include statistics, attach the document or website link to it so we can double check your numbers. Likewise, if you quote someone or a document, include the email, website screenshot or website link so we can verify the quote you include. If you found it, you can help us and streamline the fact-checking process.
Letters stating just opinions with no numbers, however, don’t need any documents.
Send your letters to me at editor@larsonnewspapers.com
