One of the great privileges of The Mount Airy News, or any other newspaper for that matter, is being able to publish letters to the editor from readers.

Here at The News we generally try to get letters in fairly quickly after we receive them. However, in recent weeks we’ve received several letters we just cannot use, which is a shame because they express a reader’s opinion.

If you want to write the editor here, for publication, please follow these guidelines:

- We do not run letters that are not signed. And the name of the signer is published with the letter. We don’t make exceptions to this rule. If you send us a letter, please sign your name.

- We need a telephone number attached to the letter. We won’t publish the number, but we do need that to verify the letter writer’s signature, and to reach the writer should we have any questions.

- We also need the address — we won’t publish your full address, but we do publish the town of origin.

- We suggest you type those letters. If you have to handwrite a letter, please do so as neatly as possible. We’ll try our best to reprint it with accuracy.

We encourage each of you to write letters to express your opinion on local, state and national issues. We enjoy publishing them. But, they have to measure up to certain standards.