Beauty is often said to be “in the eye of the beholder.” Generally, this means that what I find attractive or beautiful someone else might not. It’s just matter of opinion.

The same could be said for fairness on the Opinion Page. A policy that The Oakland Press believes to be fair to all readers may not seem so to some individuals.

We publish letters on a first come, first basis — isn’t that fair? However, sometimes that yields an imbalance on the Opinion Page. We may get numerous letters in favor of a particular issue and none against it, at least until those who are in the opposition see the initial letters and respond accordingly. So, one day you may seen three or four letters in support of a particular cause or action and several days later you may see letters opposing it. Because of the backlog of letters and deadline restrictions, it’s almost impossible to run a response to a letter the next day, even if we got the response on the same day the original letter ran.

Sometimes we have to bend our rules. For example, it’s difficult for a letter to be exactly 250 words. Often they are less but many times they run over and register at 275 or even 300 words. We try to be flexible, that’s why we say “about” 250 words.
Also, if there’s a time element to a letter, we may have to put a priority on it. For example, if someone is writing urging City Council to pass a certain ordinance and the council is expected to meet on Friday, we’ll try to get the letter in before or on that day if we get the correspondence earlier in the week.

At times, too, we have to put a priority on responses. While it will take at least a few days for a letter to be processed and published, if it is in response or reaction to certain controversial statements made in a published letter, then we do try to run the response as soon as possible. It only seems fair.

As you can see, when it comes to the Opinion Page, it takes a lot of effort to be “fair” and usually it requires some help and considerable patients from our readers.
The page has several purposes, from being a forum for readers to express their views to making people think as well as stirring debate.
So, write us, either expressing your views on a new topic or responding to an opinion expressed in a previously published letter.

We can’t guarantee when it will run but we promise to eventually publish it, provided it meets the policy requirements, basically that it is not libelous or vulgar and is about 250 words.

Under the circumstances, this is about as “fair” as we can be.