Dear Editor,
It might seem that I am answering the writer of the letter to you with the heading “Unemployed and overqualified” personally.
No, this is for everyone who decides to write letters to you, knowing they are liable to be printed in the opinion page of the paper. I have had this conversation with several people who tell me that they would like to write to the Editor, but they don’t want to offend anyone.
My parents and by extension my primary school teachers impressed upon us that one should always be responsible for what one says. That was the simple way to say it. After that there would be explanations like not being afraid and if what you say is the truth and if it is not something that was told to you in confidence, no one should be offended.
I look at it this way. If what I think was done to me was/is an injustice, then why should I protect the one who has been unjust to me? We constantly talk, text on WhatsApp and Facebook negative things about the police, who put themselves on the line for us, but we are careful not to let the people know who is not enabling us. Or we write about it, but will not add our name to the letter to authenticate it.
I believe that by not mentioning who, or which business owners offended him/her, the writer is not exposing bad policy and in so doing these business owners will continue to do, as in this case, what he/they have been doing for years.
Expecting that this behaviour could be exposed, in my opinion, comes with the territory. After all, should it not be up to me to accept or not to accept the terms of employment? And by the way, which employer would not want intelligent people working for him? Would not that be based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair?
By not adding one’s name to the letter to the editor automatically tells me that the writer is not ready to stand up to scrutiny.
Not everyone always agrees with what is written, neither is everyone always pleased with what is written. Just make sure what is written is based on the facts. I must mention, though, that we trust in government to be truthful and forthcoming, but because of lack of transparency of government, sometimes people are misled.
Expose wrongdoings. Again, I’m suggesting that writers add their name to their letters to you. It will give them credibility.
Russell A. Simmons
