Letters To The Editor

I often write letters to the editor in the local newspaper (many of them I put on my timeline). One resident, Lauren Willis of Pickens, wrote the newspaper complaining they should curtail publishing my letters. I scanned her letter below. This is a typical liberal tactic (she opposed me when I was in office because of my limited government and conservative points of view), instead of debating the conservative on the issues, try to silence them.

I want to respond to the letter last week where the writer urged the editor to curtail publishing the letters of “three” regular writers. I am one of those writers and I thank the Courier for publishing my letters and for its unwavering support of our local democracy.

While those left of center will never agree with my conservative conclusions, I present the cold hard facts and figures from source data those in power do not want you to see.

For instance, only 45 percent of the students in our school district read at grade level. The past 5 years, SDPC enrollment has fallen nearly 600. Trustee Shannon Haskett voted in favor of the district administration’s recommendation 99% of the time from Nov. 2016 to Nov. 2018. School district annual borrowing for maintenance has doubled from $3.25 million to $6.5 million. That and the rest of the figures I present come from school district reports, audits or board meeting minutes.

Drilling down on one figure, I believe in the conservative principle of smaller class sizes, hence I am alarmed the 1,007 classroom teachers is now its lowest in more than 15 years. Additionally, I think my conclusion is a valid one -- raising class sizes is a step in the wrong direction, worthy of public consideration.

If anyone wants to question that 1,007 figure (taken from the school district report card) or argue why larger class sizes are better for students, have at it. I am sure they will publish your letter.

The letters to the editor section fosters public discussion, and hence is one way to inform the community on relevant issues and various points of view. If someone wants to improve the public discussion, they should join the debate by writing a letter on an issue of public concern, not write the editor urging the newspaper not to publish such letters.

To write a letter on an issue or formulate a critique of something I’ve written takes a lot of time -- combing through the minutes, brushing up on government laws and doing things like reading the school district’s 114 page financial audit. Few do that, but more should.

Conversely, I would argue the Courier should give me a regular column, because so little information now-a-days is conveyed to the public from the school board (or the county council for that matter). Remember this is a board that holds some meetings at 8:00 on a Friday morning. This is the same leadership that held meetings on Saturday mornings before sunrise, to discuss the shutting down Holly Springs and AR Lewis.

None of that is flattering, and the board, district administration nor their cheerleaders like that being published here (hence the desire by some squash letters like this). However, those are facts, confirmed in the meeting minutes which always list the date and starting time.

Finally, the First Amendment reads: Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press…

Newspapers (and today the media as a whole) are the only industry with such a Constitutional protection. In return, newspapers like the Pickens County Courier have an obligation to inform the public about what the government is up to. Newspapers fulfill that responsibility in various ways, beit writing news stories and editorials, as well as publishing letters to the editor from people like me, you and anyone else who wants to write one.