We have been receiving a lot of letters here at The Gazette lately; some of these are for publication, and some are copies of letters sent to various county officials or copies of government documents or synopses of personal experiences with utility bills or real estate assessments.

All of this correspondence gives us a broader view of the county, of the concerns of those that make a living or a life, or both, here.

Those black-and-white, posted or e-mailed concerns range from recent clashes between parents and their school board to whether the “Flying Squirrels” is the right name for Richmond’s new baseball team.

All of these letters have been an unexpected windfall to those of us who happily make room to print as many of them as possible.

Because there are some weeks when we have only one or two letters to the editor, and one reader recently wrote to express weariness with frequent letters written by another reader.

We understand that sentiment, as we too would like to see plenty of diversity in our editorial pages.

However, we can only publish what we receive.  We cannot refuse to publish a letter, if its contents are relevant to the community, solely on the basis that its writer has written in before.

Especially on those weeks when few people have written, and the alternative to that letter would be a stretch of white space!

If you would like to see more ideas expressed in the letters section, we would encourage you to send yours in for our consideration.

And we encourage you to consider Mitchell Rosenbloom’s point, in a letter he wrote to us about the Flying Squirrels: “Also, you know the reason we lost the Braves was because we didn’t go to their games.”

I agree with Rosenbloom’s sentiment—if we don’t speak up about the issues that affect and impact our communities, if we roll our eyes passively at the opinions of others while we tacitly accept the status quo, then we may lose the very things that matter most to us, whether that be items in a school budget or a local baseball team.

So, The Gazette hopes we all find our voice; expressing our views in letters to a paper, or in petitions delivered to governments, or in donations made to a food bank—these are ways to effect a true, tangible change.