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Along Life’s Way
The Dayton
Papers and Me
By Lois E. Wilson
My writing letters to the editors of the Dayton, Ohio, newspapers
started when I was twelve years old. I read in a news article that
officials were considering tearing down the log Newcom Tavern in the
downtown area of the city. I was motivated to express my opinion that
we should keep structures of significance as they are a part of Dayton
history. I wrote a similar plea for saving Dayton’s Memorial Hall from
the “wrecking ball gang.”
Those letters were published without any problems. My battle with the
letters’ section editors began when my mother went political. Our
family was living in Dayton and our sons went to Dayton schools. My
mother was retired from teaching. In the1960’s a group of parents,
teachers, principals, and local minority leaders formed the Serving Our
Schools committee to contribute their educational based response to the
lawsuit filed against the Dayton school system by the NAACP. The full
name of SOS was announced correctly the next day in the Dayton papers.
The group was conservative; the leadership of the papers was liberal.
The papers often referred to the group as Save Our Schools. Their
errors in reporting the name prompted letters to the editor from me
which cited their original article that included the true positive
name, “Serving Our Schools.”
SOS put up a slate of candidates including my mother. She won a seat on
the Dayton school board. I was teaching at Miami U. Middletown campus
at the time. I wrote letters supporting the committee’s educational
approach to increasing diversity in Dayton schools. A few were printed.
However, some were rejected for reasons that arbitrarily changed:
One
letter had two lines of verse in it. It was rejected because they
didn’t print verse.
One
was a few words over the 200 word limit. The limit was not applied to
liberal letters.
One,
I signed L. E. Wilson—rejected for not having a full name—not applied
to others.
Their reasons became a game.
I attended a public meeting on school integration. I did not speak to
the panel. The next day there was what is now called a “fake news”
article in the paper quoting remarks that “Mrs. Groff’s daughter” had
made at the event. I contacted the editor and told him as an educator I
did not hold the opinions quoted and had not spoken at the meeting. I
requested a retraction which was granted. He suggested I also write a
letter to the editor explaining that the quotes were in error. I did,
but my letter was printed over a man’s name. He was listed as living in
another town. I complained. They finally published it ascribed to me.
Later, after all the above was settled. I pitched a “Puzzle Corner”
feature to their “Downtowner” editor, and for a time it appeared in the
publication. In 2014 the Dayton Daily News column “On Your Mind” was
soliciting opinions about eliminating cursive writing in grade schools.
I submitted my opinion in a verse called “Longhand.” It was published
in full. I wondered: Have the papers changed their ban on verse? Do
they not know I live in Greenville? Have I achieved the “last word?”
The past two years, subscribers in our neighborhood have been having
trouble getting reliable delivery of the paper. Many times, we have
received no paper. I guess if I canceled my subscription, I’d have the
last word; however, I don’t believe that no news is good news—I believe
that no news is ignorance.
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