Letter Printed in Newspaper

The Detroit News printed another letter I submitted. As usual they edit and cut to their liking, although they did leave my central point intact. The issue is about the Detroit water supply and the control of it by the City of Detroit, which supplies all the suburbs with claen water at a very good price in comparison to other metro areas.

My impetus to write the Detroit News was in response to one of their right-wing columnists who accused the Detroit Water and Sewage Department of being communists. His (Frank Beckmann) reasoning was that the department would like to reduce water rates to the poor and unemployed of Detroit. So, the following is my submission, below that is the letter as printed in the newspaper including a headline they wrote.

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Dear Editors,
Frank Beckmann's flare for the inflamatory in calling Detroit's control of the water department communism is pointless and misinterpretation. I submit that his communism is actually capitalism, albeit monopolistic, simple supply and demand. Detroit has the water supply and the suburbs have the growing demand.

What IS communism is to have some centralized bureaucracy called a "regional authority" (or maybe the Metro Politburo?) step in and seize control of the Detroit treatment facility. If Mr. Beckmann wants to solve the suburb's water control discontent using capitalism, the solution is competition by building a suburban water treatment facility.

Detroiters could then sit back and watch as the suburbs argue about who would control it, whose backyard it would be sited and the details in how to share it. On completion years from now, suburbanites would ultimately be paying far higher prices for water than they do now. They could then look back and curse themselves for believing Mr. Beckmann's propagandist characterizations.

I confess I could accept his communist regional authority as long as credit be given to Detroit's water history and the sharing with its neighbors, the suburbs. Decades of supplying inexpensive quality water (Aquafina bottled water is drawn from Detroit) that few metropolitan areas in the world can equally boast should count for something. Maybe helping the poor in Detroit receive water they can afford, eh, comrade Beckmann?
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No regional Politburo

Frank Beckmann's flare for the inflammatory in calling Detroit's control of the water department communism is pointless. I submit that his communism is actually capitalism, albeit monopolistic, simple supply and demand. Detroit has the water supply and the suburbs have the growing demand.

What is communism is to have some centralized bureaucracy called a "regional authority" (or maybe the Metro Politburo?) step in and seize control of the Detroit treatment facility. If Beckmann wants to solve the suburbs' water control discontent using capitalism, the solution is competition by building a suburban water treatment facility.

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Now I want to say that I do understand the need to edit for space concerns, but to eliminate key parts of my letter in regards to projecting into the future my arguement and solutions, leaves me feeling ripped off. I've not fully understood the newpapers of America putting limits on reader letters. The letters-to-the-editor section is one of the most read parts of a newspaper. Additionally, the letters don't cost anything in writer fees/salaries.

I don't write letters to newspapers very often, probably about 7 or 8 a year, and that's only in the last 3 or 4 years. I estimate my printed letter to unprinted letters ratio at about a 50% rate. I'm guessing that that is a fairly good ratio, which does give me a smile, especially considering that my letters tend to be a bit far left wingish.