... in today's Olympian.
I know that, for many people who live in the Olympia area, the Olympian letters section is one of the first places they visit online each day. Usually, the letters for that day are posted shortly after midnight. Not so this morning. Although every other section of the paper seemed to go up in a timely way, the letters did not appear until around noon.
I'm sure we'll never know why this occurred, but before noon I found myself wondering if today -- the day when the letters are posted 12 hours later than usual -- would be the day when the Olympian finally got around to printing some of the letters myself and others had written against the isthmus rezone, which have taken longer than usual to be printed.
It turned out I was right.
As is my usual morning routine I stopped by the Olympian website this morning and clicked on the main link to the "Letters to the editor" in the "Opinion" section. There I saw several letters regarding the holiday displays at the Capitol and one letter in support of the isthmus rezone.
Then I received an e-mail from Bonnie Jacobs per the Friends of the Waterfront mailing list and was puzzled by her reference to two letters in today's Olympian expressing opposition to the rezone. I went back, and again clicked on the main link to the letters in the "Opinion" section, and did not see the letters Bonnie mentioned.
So, I went to the very bottom of the page, clicked on the "Our views/Your views" archive and indeed there were two separate links for "Dec. 20 letters," one of which leads to the letters opposing the rezone.
If not for Bonnie's e-mail message, I would never have seen those two anti-rezone letters. I'm guessing that's true of many people: they will go to the main link and assume that they've seen all the letters for today.
This may seem like a small matter. But the rezone is such a major issue in our community and very controversial. Since the Olympian editors have vigorously supported the rezone from the beginning, the letters section is one of the very few opportunities for opposing information and views to be heard -- making it an important resource.
I called Rhetts' number at the Olympian and several other lines, but only got answering machines. I left messages on Rhett's line and at the main news desk. But it's Saturday and there's a major storm coming, so I'm not too hopeful that the glitch will be remedied. Still ... it's frustrating.