Take a letter, Maria ... address it to my wife ...

The words of the old R.B. Greaves tune rattled around in my head this week as I pondered ways to encourage more of our readers to compose their thoughts in Letters to the Editor.

In the 21st century, we no longer need Maria to take shorthand on her steno pad. Firing off a letter can be as quick as one’s fingers can fly across a keyboard, and though the mode has changed over the years, still nothing gets your point across like a succinct, well-crafted letter.

That’s why I value our “Letters to the Editor” section so much. There are many ways in which you, the reader, can interact with the newspaper. You can pick up the phone and speak to a reporter or an editor, you can send an e-mail, you can participate in the ES Forum online, you can stop by the office, you can call “30 Seconds,” or you can kibitz about it amongst yourselves. But the most effective way to get “make your voice heard” as we like to say, is to write a Letter to the Editor.

Letter-writing isn’t for everyone. It takes a lot of forethought. It takes time. And most likely it takes a 41-cent stamp. But nothing will get people talking, and thinking, like a well-written Letter to the Editor.