By Ken Robinson

Managing Editor

Editing a newspaper is an opportunity to make someone mad every day. 

And so it went recently with a piece we wrote about an attempt to poison the well in Burien.

The attempt by an outside force (meaning ‘outside of Burien city limits) to coerce people into shaming Hispanics who had come afoul of the law met with pushback by enough good citizens of the community to change the complexion of the city council. 

And that was the point of the column I wrote. 

From that, we got the following letter. (We have the name of the writer on file, but do not wish to embarrass them by printing it. ) We have to wonder why, when someone sits down to write such a letter, if they believe they are exacting punishment on the editor. Or just blowing off steam. And might later recant.

 We also wonder if this approach to dealing with things that upset them carry over into other aspects of their persona life. For example, if your partner says something that prickles you, do you file for divorce? Or just let them know strongly you disagree? Isn’t it one of those baby and bath water things? Well, it should be. He’s that letter. And following are two other letters about the now grown cold Seattle Mayoral election. 

Sticks and stones, my friends.

Dear Mr. Robinson,

 It is with a heavy heart that I am informing you that my husband and I are cancelling our subscription.

We were deeply saddened that you joined the other newspapers in fictional journalism and made the assumption that Burien Proud Burien First was a hate group. I really expected better from our hometown newspaper.

 Burien Proud Burien First is a group of long time residents that would have loved to see our city prosper. Our whole focus was to bring  unity, safety, and economic development to Burien.

 If you had reached out to any of our candidates, they would have been willing  to  share the horrid attacks that they  had experienced. Their opponents and supporters are the absolute perpetrators of hate.

More letters

Was opponent “openly straight”?

To the editor:

Thank you for assuming your readers would recognize "openly straight " as a very clever reference,  ironically thoughtful.  Each time I saw or heard "openly gay", I wondered why Ms. Moon was not described as openly straight ?

Heidi Clarke, 

Seatac

But can she type?!

I was so pleased to read your “ironic” take on the mayoral advertising. Wondering if was just me making this observation I got into more than one chat on all of this – so? to see this observation in print was terrific.

The point is—not who do you sleep with but how will you do the J-O-B!

Thanks,

Andy Helman