Matter of letters
Dear Editor
Matter of Letters
I am responding to last issue’s Editorial in which your District Editor requested “Do keep your letters coming in as we like to know what you are thinking.” What I am thinking is what a lot of stimulating copy the already splendid Chronicle is losing because of the decline in the numbers of letters flowing from South East Leicestershire into the Editor.
In the 2025 Calendar year there were 39 letters following the 23 during 2024. An increase – great, but in April ’24 and December ’25 there were no letters at all. For comparison, a single issue in February 2001 contained 17 letters, including one in the name of eight residents, plus a copy of a letter, and, in September 1999 we could read 20 letters, including one from a quite young local lady, one from a more senior local magistrate and one from an American reader. The front page of June 1994 was filled by two letters of opposing views; the letters having made themselves news items.
However, this letter is written in hope because we have an excellent monthly with much informed public support. OK, forms of communication have changed rapidly and markedly and yes – I do regularly send emails and text. Very convenient. But I hope I bear in mind the thoughts of the Chronicle editor in March 2024 issue, who, whilst applauding social media platforms in Kibworth and several other villages asked, concerning past information, “How do I track it down when Facebook has moved on and is showing an image of a lost cat or a piece of furniture to be given away?”
Years ago when joining the single HDC Independent councillor (the late experienced Michael Hadley from Foxton) to make a ‘party’ of two Independents, he advised me, as far as was realistic, it is best not to reply to emails until tomorrow… i.e. letters need time to be prepared, to be pondered. In this category we could well slot Martin Luther King’s letter from jail in 1963, Ghandi’s appeal by letter to Hitler, Churchill to Roosevelt, to De Gaulle, to Eisenhower, to his wife Clementine, or Mandela`s writing from jail advising to “try over and over again, never discouraged”. The same ‘time to ponder’ theme is common to these examples and many others in history. Excluding the four Gospels and Revelation, all the New Testament is letters, 22 out of 27 books.
So back to the District Editor’s letter about letters. Why bother? It’s a fair question. It may not make tuppence of difference…nobody will take any notice of my views, nobody will read it, I’m not good at expressing myself etc … May I suggest an answer? … Why write a letter to a newspaper, a community monthly, the Chronicle? Because we can – something denied in many countries. What difference will it make? Every snow drift is made up of individual unique snowflakes. Why a letter?“ – because we can. Two quotes – 1) Old Testament Ecclesiastes Ch 3 v 7b, and 2) I believe by the Chronicle`s first treasurer, “A spoon that doesn’t stir gets rusty!”
Roger Garratt
