69. Letter to the Editor – Sarah Lettes
Writing can be a powerful tool for social change—especially now, it can be empowering to use that skill in service of a greater good.
This past spring, I held the esteemed title of Intern at an environmental advocacy organization. When I wasn’t scribbling down meeting notes or trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid making a fool of myself in Zoom meetings, I got to write lots of letters to the editor (LTEs).
LTEs are short (usually 250 words or less) pieces published in newspapers and magazines that typically take a stance on an issue, encourage action, and/or respond directly to recent opinion pieces. This practice has existed since the earliest American newspapers and became a staple of political discourse by the mid-18th century. Even today, in the world of tweets and tags, elected officials pay close attention to local publications’ letter pages to keep a tab on public opinion.
During my internship, I got excited every time I was assigned an LTE. It was like a puzzle—I had a point I wanted to make, a few pieces of evidence to back it up, and an action to ask officials or residents to take—and just a couple of hundred words in which to fit all of these pieces. It’s a wonderful intellectual challenge to think about what you care about and figure out how to concisely convey that opinion to the world. Writing can be a powerful tool for social change—especially now, it can be empowering to use that skill in service of a greater good.
– Sarah Lettes
Prompt:
Reflect on a cause or issue that’s been on your mind. Ask yourself: What’s my story—what does this issue mean to me? What expertise or perspective do I bring? Then write a letter to the editor.
Here are some tips on getting started:
Do some research. Track down the LTE guidelines for your local newspaper, and read other LTEs to get a feel for the structure. Check out the news. The more timely your message, the better. Editors also love LTEs that refer to recent articles.
Keep your language simple. Start with a compelling, attention-grabbing statement or fact. Focus on one key point. Then, use evidence from reliable sources to back it up.
Be specific. Include concrete recommendations, a call to action, and/or the name of any elected officials you want to hear your message.
Alexia Marsillo
Location: Montreal, Canada
About: I work in communications and as a freelance journalist. The Isolation Journals came at the perfect time for me, as I had just promised myself I would do more personal writing. This entry speaks for itself. Isolation has been a time for reflection and this explosion of the BLM needed to happen during this time. Time to wake up.
Age: 26
BLM: From Movement to Lifestyle
The Black Lives Matter Movement needs to be more than a movement – it needs to become a lifestyle. In this exhausting and exhaustive era of social media, cancel culture and short-lived hash tag trends, BLM needs to rise above all the noise. But, that responsibility does certainly not lie on the Black community. Black people have held us up through the entire course of history and enough is enough. It is time we white people hold them up for a change. It is way beyond time, actually. It is so overdue. We need to do this now and we need to do it right. To make up for so much lost time. For so many lost lives. This idea of becoming an ally as a destination, a place you reach once you’ve read enough books, signed enough petitions and made enough considerable donations is a very dangerous notion. Becoming a true, effective ally is a lifelong journey of not only learning but of unlearning. Of checking our privilege, of unlearning life long behaviours and attitudes that have been instilled into our subconscious through the overwhelming presence of racism engrained in our society and our systems. Being an ally is committing everyday for the rest of our days, to learn and to unlearn, to enact change, to support and uphold our Black communities, to demand change from others. To demand change of ourselves. To step outside of our privilege and actively join the solution instead of living in our comfortable complacency and reaping the benefits of a broken world. The Black Lives Matter Movement is here to stay. It is now a way of life. Get on board.
Clara Symmes
Location: Jackson, New Hampshire
About: While I've been isolating in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I have watched my community adjust its tourism-based economy and address what social justice might look like in our white, affluent town.
Age: 24
To the editor:
The past few weeks, I’ve attended three protests for Black lives in the area. I’ve been impressed by how our community has shown up for people and issues that aren’t often addressed in the White Mountains. I’m feeling a great deal of pride.
Of course, we’ve had a few counter-protestors. Mostly yelling from cars. One popular jeer has been “Get a job!” which is very interesting me for three reasons:
First, why does attending a protest mean that I don’t have a job? We’ve held protests during flexible hours that could accommodate workers on a service industry or 9-5 schedule. Do you have a job? Why is it more likely for me to be unemployed, holding a sign at 3PM on a Monday than it is for you, driving through town at the same time?
Second, I had two jobs and I lost them three months ago at the start of the pandemic. Remember the coronavirus? Yes, I could start a new job, you’re right. But seeing as cases and deaths are still on the rise and that I live with my parents (who are both considered at-risk because of their age), I don’t think it would be wise for me to take up another job in the service industry here. Even so, many businesses and organizations have hiring freezes and so it’s hard to get a job.
Third, it goes against my interest to get a job because honestly, my unemployment benefits are three times as much as I was making before the pandemic hit. And honestly, I don’t feel guilty about taking advantage of the system because it’s already taken advantage of me for my entire professional life!
So counter-protestors, your calls for me to find employment are as pointless and ignorant as your claims that “all lives matter.” I may be unemployed, but at least I am using this time in my life to fight for change and equity in our community.
In Solidarity,
Clara Symmes
Jackson, NH
Flynn
Location: Stuart, Flordia
About: Things we change if we began to treat each other as though we were only something else’s meal.
Age: 58
So, let's say we Earthlings get invaded by beings from another planet far away from here, and let's say that those invaders want us for their own purpose of nutrition.
To the invaders, we are all just a tasty and delicious source of food.
(If you think that can't happen, read no further.)
Do we all band together to protect ourselves from the invaders?
Or, will we band apart, divided by the typical and mostly unpleasant labels we have historically given each other--nationality, age, gender, race, religion, and so on--and then have those divisions attempt to negotiate with the invaders a better outcome for their own division?
Bear in mind, the space invaders are probably just going to laugh off the negotiators as some kind of comedy routine.
Talk all you want. Call yourself whatever you like. To them, we're all just an item on the menu.
All of us. Everyone.
Now, many people are critical of world Governments lack of preparation for Coronavirus 19. We could've avoided a lot of very bad things if we had only been better prepared. Better informed. Better equipped..
Very many people think there is a possibility--if not an actual likelihood--that life exists elsewhere in the Universe, and that we Earthlings will eventually have direct encounters with that life.
Maybe we should stay ahead of the curve, the same way we should have stayed ahead of Covid-19.
A stitch in time. Protect the natural resources we have--"Earth," as we know it. Stop dividing and labeling everyone by the traditional labels--we're all the same, after all. (Right?)
Stop devising more sophisticated weapons to KILL OURSELVES with.
Remember, the invaders are going to be looking at us like we're chicken nuggets and/or crudités. Pie and ice cream. To them, we’re ALL just going to be some kind of "Happy Meal."
We should probably stop presenting ourselves as a variety of food. Let's not put ourselves on their version of the dollar menu. Make the menu unexciting, if not outright boring.
As it is now, to the invaders, we're only making ourselves look like appetizers, entrées and desserts.
You know.
"Soup to NUTS."
Carry on.
Marcy Breier
Location: Cape Cod, MA
About: Part of my mission is to reduce the stigma against mental illnesses. It can be a barrier to treatment. It harms a population that is underserved and marginalized by society.
Age: 57
This is somewhat harsh, so if you don’t want to read something that may be unkind, please skip this. This is an open letter written to an American journalist, Chris Cuomo. It is about the demonization of people with mental illness, particularly whenever a mass shooting occurs. (Another type of pandemic in America.)
I was very fortunate to grow up with an older brother who was and always will be my hero. The lessons that I learned from him will resonate with me forever. We were eight years apart, yet among the four siblings in my family, the closest.
Anything my brother had he would share or give away. Before minimalism became popular, my brother lived it. In his late teens this wonderful man developed schizophrenia. Bravely, he lived with it from the early nineteen-seventies, until his premature death in 2012 at the age of fifty-six. He died of a massive heart attack that may have been side-effect of his medication.
After his death, so many people told me stories of the ways he had helped them.
The public must realize that humans who have diseases of the brain can be truly good and kind like my brother. Some may be angry or bitter. This is no different than the rest of society. In general, most people who endure mental illnesses of all sorts are more likely to harm themselves than others. In fact, persons struggling with mental illness are less likely than the general public to commit violent acts.
In the years after my brother was diagnosed, somehow, I knew that I could not say “schizophrenia” out loud. At times when he was unmedicated I was frightened for him.
Sometimes my family could not find him. He spoke incoherently and was off on imaginary movie projects or missions. I was a young child and no one had the time to explain what was happening to my beloved brother.Family members, especially children need help to understand these situations. Especially children.
You would think that four decades later, things would have improved greatly. Surprisingly the stigma against people with mental illnesses is alive and thriving courtesy of newscasters, TV series and the public in general. They group everyone together who have a very diverse number of disorders. The most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which is the book used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental illness was 947 pages, and covered 157 disorders.
When the most recent mass shooting occurred (as of this writing,) in Virginia Beach in May, I watched 10 minutes of CNN live coverage by Chris Cuomo.
In the ten minutes that I could endure this ill-informed newscaster, Chris Cuomo, repeated the phrase, “the mentally ill” at least 15 times. I counted. Each time I cringed. This person even said the words, “I am not trying to demonize the mentally ill,” while doing exactly that.
What I want to tell Chris Cuomo is that there is not this one group, “The Mentally Ill,” that needs to be rounded up every time a crime is committed. In fact, many disorders that are grouped with mental illnesses may be neurological disorders, physical brain trauma and personality disorders.
Regardless, there is no reason to group people and insinuate that they need to be registered because they are sick. This “rounding up, or registering” people based on illness smells faintly of Hitler. And that stinks.
This is no more reliable than the fact that recently, many high-profile US Newscasters have committed rape or sexual abuse against women. Unlike Chris Cuomo, I have actual names:
Matt Lauer, NBC
Bill O’Reilly, FOX
Roger Alies, FOX
Mark Halperin, CNN
Michael Oreskes, NPR
Charlie Rose, NBC
Glen Thrush, NYT
And these are just the ones that made it to the news. Who knows how many women were paid for their silence or perhaps did not report the crimes?
So therein lies the question: Every time a woman is raped or assaulted and does not know her attacker, do we round-up the male newscasters? Do we have a registry of Newscasters to check in the event of molestation or rape of a woman?
Preposterous? No more than blaming a bunch of people with many different illnesses who are already struggling and have done no harm to anyone. Particularly this group who suffer feelings of sadness and worthlessness without the finger pointing of uninformed Newscasters, like Mr. Cuomo.
Media is powerful and the popular figures that are dispensing news are also dispensing stigma and certainly attacking people who are ill and have no crimes committed. This is not news. It is biased opinion. I wonder if he bothered to do any research before making his ill-informed remarks?
People with mental illness are far more likely to harm themselves than others. Of all suicides committed, 90% are by people who suffer from mental illness.
Perhaps we should be asking, “how can we better serve this segment of the population who are feeling such grave despair?
What we need to do is inform newscasters that the group, “the mentally ill,” is as diverse the group “the physically ill,” and is not a phrase that should be used in any accusatory manner. I do not watch any newscasts.
Chris, you are part of the problem.
I am writing about my brother and advocating for people with mental illnesses.
I am going to be a very small part of the solution.
Sincerely,
Marcy, little sister of Larry