Editor,

With regards to Ty Welch’s letter to the editor on Trump and racism etc., where to begin? Wait, I have a better idea: don’t begin at all!

I think everyone in the Whidbey News-Times readership realizes that if they want to watch or read, or even enter into, the national politics debate there are ample places to do so on the internet, TV, radio and print material. My point is quite simple: do we really want to have the same debate cluttering up our own local newspaper? Don’t we have enough local politics to occupy our time without having national politics invade us as well?

I certainly sympathize with the News-Times staff in trying to do the right thing by providing access for freedom of speech and commend them for their efforts to keep it a locally focused news source. However, I think that we members of the paper’s readership can help out significantly here.

How about a moratorium on national politics entering the letters to the editor space? Couldn’t we as readers just agree among ourselves to refrain from sending in partisan letters about national politics? That would help the newspaper and ourselves from having to deal with an unneeded source of contention in the community.

Of course, we should welcome nonpartisan letters encouraging people to vote in national and local elections and similar issues, but let’s forgo the partisanship. Hopefully, this isn’t too much to ask for democracy in action.

Lance Packer

Oak Harbor