For about a decade, I read every comment on every column I wrote. I told myself it was to stay in touch with readers. It was not. It was a habit, in the way that checking a bruise is a habit.
I stopped last year, and something unexpected happened. I started reading the letters page again, including the letters about my own columns, and I found that I could take them seriously. A letter is a response. It has a name on it, it was written after some thought, and somebody chose to put a stamp on it, or at least to find the submission form.
What a letters page is for
A comment section is a reaction. It is instant and it is cheap and it is, most of the time, written to the other commenters rather than to the writer. A letters page is a conversation between the publication and the people it serves, moderated by an editor whose job is to be fair rather than fast.
This publication prints letters. It will keep printing them. If you disagree with this column, which I suspect some of you do, you know where the form is.
