04.07.2008 2:51 pm
The torch, the Hill, the tulips: Open thread
“May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic Torch pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure.” Pierre de Coubertin (French Educator, primarily responsible for the revival of the Olympic Games in 1894, from ThinkExist.com)
The Associated Press reports chaos surrounding the Olympic torch relay. David Petraeus reports to Congress about the Iraq War. And spring seems to have arrived (finally), as evidenced by a few gorgeous tulips spotted on the afternoon dog walk.
To steal a line from Marvin Gaye, what’s going on?
Jamie Riley is the P-D letters editor and gatekeeper of the letters blog. Before joining the editorial page in May 2005, she was a reporter and page designer. Jamie lives in University City with her husband, Charles, daughter, Elise, and the world's best Jack Russell terrier, Logan, better known as Stinky. 
I would like know why Sen. Obama refuses to appear on Chris Wallace’s Fox News Sunday show when he told Mr. Wallace a year ago he would. He apparenlty has plenty of time to appear on The View, Ellen, Hardball, Olbermann and the Today show recently. What is he afraid of? I find this extremely disturbing behavior by a presidential candidate.
Ms. Riley,
Why have there been so few letters to the editor posted in that forum on the blogzone? I don’t check the newsprint every day, but there are plenty of letters in the editorial/commentary section, yet relatively few of them make it to the blogzone. There hasn’t been much to debate recently.
Also, I noticed last Saturday when you published part of a blog that it wasn’t a very controversial. Maybe the pre-kindergarten program blog will make it in this week. 20 posts and a legitimate debate - I don’t think any of the other blogs came close.
how many editorial writers these days? Kevin seems to write most of them? no agenda, just curious; you used to have a gaggle. best, Bill
Ms. Riley,
Thanks for all of your efforts so far. I would like to make a few suggestions.
1. Allow posters to review their posts. I sometimes find I have forgotten which threads I have posted to and by the time I find them again and respond to others comments the thread is finished. I think this would encourage better debates. This could be accomplished in two ways: a) let us search by name of the poster or b) an entry page that allows you to view all of your previous posts. The ideas are not exclusive and would work well together.
2. Allow debate on all letters to the editor. There are some very good ones in the letters section to which we are not able to respond online.
3. Publish blogs in the paper in which people actually make legitimate arguments. The past two weeks have been poor choices: this weeks choice regarding first ladies was not worth printing.