Dear editor:
This morning, I heard you (Derek Clouthier) on the Calgary Eyeopener on CBC Radio, making a heartfelt plea to listeners to submit more letters to the editor of the Cochrane Eagle.
As a lifelong news junkie, newspaper editor and reporter, I understand how important reader involvement is to community newspapers. Letters not only demonstrate that somebody out there is actually reading the darn paper, they point the way to local issues that the newspaper and readers should focus on. Issues, as you know, are the lifeblood of community journalism. Besides that, letters are just really interesting to read, even (especially!) the nutty ones. A paper without letters is in serious danger of becoming boring, as well as out of touch.
Your appeal prompted me to consider writing the Eagle, but alas, I do not live in Cochrane, nor do I get to read your newspaper on a regular basis. Because of this, I have only the slightest understanding of what makes your community tick. Based on your comments on air, I considered opining on the lack of public transit in Cochrane, but I suspect you get lots of letters on that already. I also pondered taking a position on the wind turbine at the high school, which I have never laid eyes on, or the state of the ice cream business in your town, which I and most of the rest of the civilized world wholeheartedly support. But as I am not a ‘local,’ I find I have nothing much to say on these questions, which wouldn’t be of much use to you.
I am not one to let a lack of information stand in the way of a good, solid editorial broadside, however. In that respect, I am just like some of those folks who like to call open line radio. So, to assist you, I offer the following list of potential issues your readers and I might have opinions about, if they actually were issues and we thought about them for five minutes. Hopefully, the mere mention of these speculative items will be enough to get the editorial juices flowing in your town, and the letters pouring into your offices by the bagful:
The possibility of Calgary Transit tripling, or quadrupling, the fee for using the C-Train Park ‘n Ride at Crowfoot.
The chances of Rocky View County approving the development of a massive big-box shopping mall adjacent to the town, complete with Canada’s largest Wal-Mart store.
The prospect of the City of Calgary moving to annex Cochrane and rename it West Airdrie.
There, that ought to do it.
Happy New Year to you and your readers, and may 2014 bring you a bounty of reader mail, both real and unreal.
Jim Cunningham, Calgary
