HOT PURSUIT

With the Iowa Caucus in the rearview mirror, the 2024 election season is now full throttle ahead.

Will voters fire Joe Biden as president and rehire embattled former president Donald Trump? Or will voters continue the course with Biden as chief commander and say good riddance to Trump once and for all?

Those will be the multi-million-dollar questions looming in America over the next 10 months. Millions of dollars will be spent on this year’s presidential campaign.

As evidenced by comments from our readers over the past month, including this week’s edition, the election is on the minds of many people. And there certainly are some strong opinions on both sides of the political fence.

Before we get any further into the election season, I thought it would be a good idea to review our ground rules for political views shared by readers. We have two options available: letters to the editor or guest column. Basically, submissions 300 words or less will be labeled under the “Your View” header as letters to the editor while materials with more than 300 words will be considered “Guest Columns.” The longer version columns should be limited to 500 words or less, if possible.

We reserve the right to edit any submissions for a variety of reasons, including length, clarity, grammar and whether the content is slanderous. 

With either option available, the one basic that we will hold to is that the letter or column must be signed by the writer with contact information available to reach out if we have questions. (Only the name and city are published in the newspaper.)

Letters must be original. We’re not allowing copying and pasting from social media, a campaign web page or someone else’s email.

The whole point of publishing letters and columns is for members of the community to have healthy conversations with each other. We believe everyone has valid points to make no matter which candidate they are supporting. And we expect other people to share in the same belief.

Civility is important to us. Some may look at that as a foreign concept when it comes to the crazy world of politics. But it boils down to this. Letters and columns should not imply any personal insults or name-calling. This not only includes the candidates but also the people behind the writings.

I would like to throw out something for those pondering to share their views. While the presidential election certainly isn’t off limits, I would encourage people to focus on the more local and state races. Most of us have made up our minds about the presidential race (the candidate pool is pretty limited, right?)  but many are left pondering who to vote for in the county, city and school board races. However, many of those candidates may not be known for a few months yet as filings don’t open until May. A well-worded letter of support for a local candidate who’s impressed you could make a big difference in the upcoming election.

Everyone needs to have this basic understanding as we move forward. All voices—conservative, liberal, old, young, rich or poor—are welcome to express their opinions. It’s our job to share those voices with you and not take sides with one over the other. If you don’t like something someone has written, jump on board by writing a rebuttal. It’s all a part of having a healthy exchange on our opinion pages, which are by design people’s opinions.

Letters and columns for consideration of publication can be sent to news@steelecountytimes.com, mailed to Steele County Times, P.O. Box 247, Blooming Prairie, MN 55917  or dropped off at one of our offices in Blooming Prairie or Owatonna.

I encourage readers to go in hot pursuit of sharing their views as voters decide which candidates are best suited to represent the people.