BE UNINHIBITED. GO ON A LETTER-WRITING SPREE....PAUL STEINBERG

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To the Editor:

Jessica Dieckman has been the topic of controversy lately. It got bad enough that on one social media platform, one Croton resident called for other people to tell Ms. Dieckman to [expletive] herself. After letters by Sherry Horowitz and Robert Radick were published in The Gazette (week of July 31/Aug 6), those letters became the topic of flyers posted on telephone polls by an anonymous person writing for some reason in the style of a nineteenth century British woman. The flyers in turn were the topic of a Croton Chronicle post, which led to the EverythingCroton blog putting up an index to recent letters by Ms. Dieckman.

I normally skip over the national issue letters in The Gazette. But after Robert Radick’s denunciation of Ms. Dieckman’s “uninhibited and ongoing letter-writing spree” I had to find out what all the uproar is about. So I went back and read a few of the letters.

There isn’t anything objectionable about the style of Ms. Dieckman’s letters: No profanity, implicit threats, ad hominem attacks, doxing. Her point of view is right of center, which many in Croton might disagree with. But it is one thing to disagree with Ms. Dieckman, as Ms. Horowitz does in her letter. It is a different matter to call for The Gazette to silence Ms. Dieckman, as Mr. Radick does in his letter.

Mr. Radick says that the Editor of this newspaper is “letting anyone with an opinion and a pen turn The Gazette [into] a soapbox for their exaggerated, divisive, and even insulting political diatribes.” I think the key word there is “divisive.” What bothers Mr. Radick (and some of Ms. Dieckman’s social media antagonists) is the mere existence of a minority viewpoint.

In recent years, we have grown increasingly intolerant of those who will not conform. We push them off social media, we shut their bank accounts, we target their political flags… we even deny them pierogies. We don’t even allow them to ignore us by blocking our online hounding. Why? Why not live and let live?  What harm is there to letting someone express their opinion?

Is it an attempt to bring heretics back to the one true faith? Not always. For while it is true that some people like Ms. Horowitz make a persuasive rebuttal to Ms. Dieckman, many people have no interest in dialogue. When someone blocks you on social media to de-escalate a feud, enlisting others to tell the de-escalating party to [expletive] themselves is not a reasoned counter-argument. Urging the Editor of the local paper to not print letters from people you disagree with is not an argument at all: it is being a bully.

I will probably continue to skip over the letters discussing national politics. But if we can say one thing with certainty based on the past few months, it is that many readers of The Gazette do read those letters and they are passionate about their feelings. So I say: be uninhibited. Go on a letter-writing spree. Freedom to speak your mind is the whole point of the Letters to The Editor section of this newspaper. Even if your opinion deviates from the majority of your neighbors. In fact, especially if you disagree with the majority.

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to ShopRite and stock up on pierogies. Just in case.

--Paul Steinberg, Croton-on-Hudson