Edit or Not to Edit

As most of you know, I read the paper a lot. It doesn’t happen every day, but for the most part I read the entire local section, including the letters to the editor. I have often noticed that some of the people who write these letters do not appear to have a strong grasp of the English language. Some are borderline illiterate. In a letter today, one woman wrote about Day Light Savings time that, “It should be put on ballot for citizens to vote on as to whether Californians want or not.” Is this person a cave man?

I showed the letter to my friend DD and we wondered why the paper doesn’t edit the letters so the people who submit them don’t sound so dumb. That’s when I noticed a little blurb under the caption “Readers write.” Part of it reads, “The Californian reserves the right to edit and re-print contributed commentary in any format…”

I assume this means the actual letter was written rather eloquently and this is the result of the edit.