Opinion

The email this week brought a letter from a 17-year-old young man in Alabama listing all the reasons he’s supporting Kerry, and unselfconsciously confessing that he sent the letter via a form on the Kerry website. We’ve gotten a bunch of these letters lately, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Zack Exley, formerly a strategist with MoveOn.org, is now the Kerry campaign's director of online communications and organizing, and he’s clearly transferred what he learned in the slick MoveOn operation to his new job. As a result, Kerry supporters seem to be easily able to write, at one fell swoop, to hundreds of media outlets around the country to support their man. Some letters, like the one from our Alabama correspondent, are personal and heartfelt, while others have more of a canned flavor. In the interest of saving our printed pages for controversial local issues that don’t get aired anywhere else, we’ve relegated most of these letters to the web version of the paper, but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate them. Any undecided Planet readers (there must be a few of you out there) should check the website for some excellent arguments. We haven’t gotten many for Bush, though. -more-

We have been deluged with calls and letters from proponents of various measures which will confront voters on the November ballot, at a time when most voters, including us, are preoccupied with the job of getting rid of George Bush. As I am writing this, I’ve been interrupted, at home, by a call from an old acquaintance who wants me to endorse Measure B. -more-