Most of the people who write letters to The Oakland Press are reasonable, courteous and understanding.

They’ve got strong opinions and don’t mind expressing them but they do so in an open-minded way that I believe is the essence of our Democracy. They understand the Opinion Page policies and why they are formulated to be “fair” to all.

Some of these great readers and letter writers I’ll talk about in a future blog.
Today, I just want to comment briefly on some of those people who, frankly, leave me scratching my head and wondering “why?”

They are the ones who write a letter to the editor but don’t seem to understand the term “fairness” and are upset because we don’t have space and had to hold their letter or we ran it but had to trim the correspondence. They are also upset if they read a guest opinion, letter or editorial that they don’t agree with.

One irate reader recently said he was canceling his subscription because we endorsed a candidate he disliked. The fact we endorsed several candidates who he probably would vote for didn’t matter. We gave an endorsement to a candidate he doesn’t like, so, he was canceling his subscription.

Obviously, I can’t argue with how the gentleman feels or stop him from canceling the paper but I don’t have to admire or respect him — and I don’t.

He claims to support the U.S. Constitution and be in favor of Free Speech. To me, that means allowing everyone to express their opinions and respecting their views, even if you don’t agree with them.

However, this particularly gentlemen seems to be saying he supports the Constitution and Free Speech as long as he agrees with what you’re saying.

Fortunately, these types of individuals are in the minority, based on my experience with them.

I respect their right to their opinions but I believe they are closed-minded hypocrites.