Okay. So the lesson for today is not to forget to press ‘send’. I’m not positive that’s what happened but Terry Farrell, the editor of The Record swears they never got my letter and I believe him. Next time, if there is a next time, I will send it directly to Terry’s email address and probably call him to confirm that he got it!
Some folks posted disparaging remarks about The Record on Facebook because in my blog post I wrote: “My letter was not published. I don’t know why…” In doing so, I chose my words carefully so as not to blame The Record directly for not publishing my letter. Some people interpreted my words as an attack on The Record. They were not intended to be and if I’ve caused Terry Farrell and The Record undue stress, I apologize.
In hindsight, I did wonder why the paper didn’t pick up my letter. I should have picked up the phone at that moment and called Terry to confirm whether or not he had received my letter although, in my defence, I thought that Terry was out of town collecting a Ma Murray award for editorial excellence and that was maybe why it hadn’t been picked up. Just goes to show you, assumptions can be completely unfounded and we can all be fallible…even me!
So, sorry if I may have prompted some of you to dump on The Record. It was no doubt unfounded in this case. That doesn’t mean we should give the paper an easy ride. Newspapers, although privately owned, have a responsibility to the public to report the news accurately and in a timely fashion. I’m sure Terry would agree with that. He didn’t win the Ma Murray for nothing.
All this said, I don’t retract for one moment the content of my letter. My original blog post containing my wayward letter and the following post stand as written. Furthermore, I don’t intend to let this issue just fade away.
We need good quality, safe and affordable housing in this Valley and not just for the people with lots of money. If we don’t believe we’re all in this together and that we have a responsibility to every member of our community, we’re deluding ourselves and setting ourselves up for serious discord and social breakdown.
Roger Albert - Always a Sociologist: Now Living With Myeloma 
When I send a letter to the editor, I prefer to use my e-mail program (rather than the web site itself). I think I use the “read receipt” request also. If I am not sure the editor received my letter, I do call or e-mail him asking if he got it. Sometimes, my letters are just not chosen to be published, as there are quite a few letter writers in the Comox Valley. Interestingly, when I sent letters to the North Island Gazette, they were all published. I think that is likely due to the lower rates of people with enough confidence to write letters to editors in that area, but I can never be certain.
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That’s wise, Marilyn.
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Of course it’s up to the editor to publish a letter or not. I’ve had many published by The Record. I don’t know why I used the form instead of emailing Terry directly. The Record needs to either remove the form or indicate that it shouldn’t be used to send letters to the editor.
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Hi Roger.
Thank you for this post, as always, you have a great voice to be heard.
I hope today’s votes put some good healthy sense into this most beautiful valley.
We live in a living treasure on this planet.
We are so blessed.
Be well.
Love you.
Hooley
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Thank you so much, John. We love you too and miss you.
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Very nicely said Roger. Also, how nice to see you during the studio tour. AND thanks for calling this morning to remind me to vote. I actually had my coat on when Geoff Hartmann came to my door and we were in the middle of a conflab when you called. But then I went and voted…you can be sure. In my long life, I think I’ve only missed voting twice, and those were in municipal elections.
Voting is an imperative for me…I had very political parents…My dad used to manage the campaign for our local MLA in Manitoba, my mom handled the phones just like you….and once I was 16 I was recruited to drive people to the polls. Needless to say I passed this “imperative” along to my sons (who also both voted today) and they in turn to my grandsons who told me yesterday….”oh yeah…we’ll be going with Dad when he votes tomorrow. We go every time!”
Cheers, bette
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Hi Bette,
Thank you for your comments and for voting. We elected Scott Fraser last night and that’s all good. My parents weren’t particularly involved in the political process although they always voted. They instilled in us the importance of voting. Of course, in the day nobody would ever divulge who they voted for and I never knew how they voted. It’s all very interesting. Overall, I like minority governments. They are somewhat unstable but I don’t find that to necessarily be a bad thing.
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