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<DIV><FONT size=4>One important method of participating in the public policy
conversation is to write letters to the editor. Below is my most recent
letter published in the Oklahoman on June 19th. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Nearly every letter I have sent the Oklahoman since I started
getting "really involved" with sustainability issues has been published.
I'd like to share some of the basics of writing letters to the editor, because
we need more such letters that promote the sustainability process.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>These "guidelines" are oriented towards the Oklahoman, but
they will probably work for most other newspapers. Look for "guidelines
for letters" on the website or the editorial page of the publication you are
targeting for a letter.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>1. Keep it short. The Oklahoman's drop dead length
is 225 words. If you send more than 225 words, an editor won't even see
it. But my experience is that sending less than 200 words is
better.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>2. Make one point. When I draft a letter to the
editor, typically my "first cut" tries to make about six gazillion points and is
a page long. Well, not really, but often my first draft is about 500
words. From there I whittle it down and typically end up with one, maybe 2
points to make. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>3. Every word must move the letter forward to its
conclusion. Rhetoric like "in my opinion" is a waste of words, in this
case 3. In the context of a 200 word letter, three words is a LOT.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>4. Reference the article you are responding to briefly
by name and date. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>5. Don't get mad when your letter is edited. In
the case of this letter, I originally sent 201 words, they published 131.
And the 70 or so words they eliminated were actually rhetorical fluff. The
column inches available for letters is a limited resource, so they don't publish
rhetorical fluff. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>6. There's a 2nd reason I don't mind their edits:
you can learn a lot about writing by comparing your original to their edited
copy. My letters nearly always disagree with e.g. local government policy
and editorials in the Oklahoman. Yet, they do get published, and yes,
sometimes they are edited. But I have learned much about newspaper writing
by looking at their edits, and I didn't even have to pay tuition or attend a
class.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>7. Don't delay -- if you see something you want to
respond to, make time within 24 hours to send your letter. News gets stale
fast, and if you wait 2 weeks to respond to something in the Oklahoman, you
probably won't get published.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>8. I send my letters by email, to <A
href="mailto:yourviews@oklahoman.com">yourviews@oklahoman.com</A> . Don't
forget to include your name, address including zip, and phone number. If
you don't include that info, an editor won't see the email/letter.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>9. Don't bother with a salutation. I simply put
Letter to the Editor in the subject line, and then immediately start my letter
in the body of the email.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>10. If you don't get an auto-response within 24 hours,
your email got lost in cyberspace.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>11. Resist the urge to vent anger. Indeed, some of
the Oklahoman's edits of my most recent letter were catty comments I made about
high gas prices putting a "crimp in the Big League City plan". And yes,
the most charitable thing I can say about those sentences were that they were
catty. I'm glad they were edited out.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>12. Always read your letter out loud. If it sounds
funny, then you need to keep on editing. Edit until when read aloud it
reads smoothly and intelligibly.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>13. Shorter sentences are better than longer
sentences.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>14. Over time, don't hesitate to repeat yourself.
e.g., this sentence from my June 19th letter:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>"Oklahoma City would then be a place where people could get to
work, to shop and to entertainment, regardless of the price of
gasoline."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>in one form or another has appeared repeatedly in my letters
over the last four years, in relation to protecting Union Station and increasing
mass transit participation. While I hit other subjects, this is my primary
theme for my own little letter to the editor campaign. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV>We need more letters.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>For example, there is an editorial in today's Oklahoman that I would
dearly love to reply to, but since I had a letter published on the 19th, they
won't consider another letter from me for 4 to 6 weeks. It's the editorial
"Bad News Bearers" which uses government figures for inflation and unemployment
to "prove" things are better than most people's rhetoric suggests. Those
inflation and unemployment statistics of course are about as respectable as the
reports from the old Soviet Union of the successful completion of the latest
Five Year Plan, which were reported regularly in the Soviet media right up until
the day the old Soviet Union collapsed and Yeltsin used the term "former Soviet
Union" for the first time in public. If you had read only the Soviet
newspapers, you would never have known anything was going on.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There is a lot of ferment among "the people" right now.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We are edging towards a situation where a critical mass may start coming
together in favor of rapid and serious changes that would be very good.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>But the situation could easily go the other way too. Lots of dark
voices are very loud out there, preaching xenophobia, war, violence, and class
warfare. If we the "sustainablistas" don't enter the public square en
masse, someone else will be there. And we may not like what people decide
to choose as a result.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I have said for a long time, that one of these days people are going to
wake up across the board, and when that happens, we better be there the firstest
with the mostest. When that happened in Weimar Germany, the Nazis got
there the firstest with the mostest and look what happened thereafter.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Just as only one straw can break the camel's back, or one grain of sugar
crystalize a super-saturated solution, one 150 word letter to the editor could
set off a critical mass in favor of sustainable solutions. The letter
you don't write may be that lost opportunity. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Estimated time commitment: 2-3 hours, every 4-6 weeks, if you aim to
get published on their minimum time frame. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This is a high potential value/low entry barrier sustainability
activity.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Bob Waldrop, OKC</DIV>
<DIV></FONT><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV class=subhead>Not an option</DIV>Regarding "Off track: Crosstown foes revel
in slowing progress” (Our Views, June 12): <A title="Cable News Network LP LLLP"
href="http://newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Cable+News+Network+LP+LLLP&CATEGORY=COMPANY">CNN</A>
has identified Oklahoma City as the worst major city in the <A
title="United States"
href="http://newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=United+States&CATEGORY=COUNTRY">United
States</A> to "ride out” an oil crisis. For most of us, saving money by taking
the bus or train isn't an option because there are no buses or trains to take us
from where we live to where we work and shop. <A title="Union Station"
href="http://newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Union+Station&CATEGORY=ATTRACTION">Union
Station</A>'s facilities could be the center of a functional, cost-effective,
multimodal transportation system. Oklahoma City would then be a place where
people could get to work, to shop and to entertainment, regardless of the price
of gasoline. By the time the Interstate 40 relocation boondoggle is finished,
gasoline will be $8 a gallon or more.
<P><A title="Bob Waldrop"
href="http://newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Bob+Waldrop&CATEGORY=PERSON">Bob
Waldrop</A>, Oklahoma City</P></FONT></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>