Editor:

Letters to the editor is a great vehicle for the vocal minority (of which I am one) to express ourselves, hence allowing us to exercise our freedom of speech.

Sometimes the editor has to do just that and edit our letters to meet their criteria and, unfortunately (for me), that was the case in a letter, which ran Dec. 14. A paragraph was deleted and some sentences were cropped and whilst I may not like it, I respect their decision to do so.

What disturbs me more than being edited is when I read a letter that I believe is full of inaccuracies: “Has force replaced democracy” printed in the same edition.

My husband and I attended the town hall meeting that this woman was referring to and one might think we were at different meetings. Contrary to what she wrote, 90 per cent of the people in attendance were not there to express concerns about the community forest, though certainly 90 per cent of the noise/defamatory outbursts at the meeting came from the group that was there to support the forest.

Being newer to the Coast, we didn’t have an opinion about the forest when we entered the meeting and the rude conduct of some of the supporters encouraged us to be anything but supportive. As for the little boy who was put forward by his mom to ask a question on her behalf, the mayor was warm and engaging in his response and went so far as trying (unsuccessfully) to encourage the little boy into further conversation by offering him the microphone.

Our overall observation was that the mayor and council did an excellent job at responding with civility to the accusations/questions being thrown at them, but then, as I said earlier, perhaps we were at a different meeting!

Carolyn White, Sechelt