By way of background, let me tell of an actual event. Back in the late 1960s, a worldwide, well-known manufacturer ran a television ad that I felt was very offensive. It tried to be funny about a horrible historical event that involved millions of deaths.  

Well, I typed — remember this was the 1960s — a letter to a chief executive of the company explaining why I thought the ad was in extremely bad taste. Well, they never responded but several weeks later there was a news article that told of the company dropping this particular ad.  

It was explained that the reason they did so was because of the off-the-charts negative response to the ad. And what was that huge response? As I remember it, it was about 80 letters.  

Eighty letters from a nation of hundreds of millions of people. The thing was that so few people would take the time to send a letter in such a case that yes, 80 was a huge response. 

What has this to do with “Letters to the Editor”? It is a little of the same thing. People may moan and gripe about something that is happening but do they take the time to write down what they think of the matter and more importantly, why they think what they do?  

The fact that a letter is written and published immediately makes the writer’s opinion stand out because there are not all that many of them, even in our county of over 600,000 people. And even in modestly sized local publications like The Intelligencer and the Bucks County Courier Times thousands of people will likely read your letter.  

And in that group of people will be decision makers at all levels of government, teachers, fellow voters and open-minded others who will read, consider and perhaps act upon what you have written. Though you will never know what the cumulative effect might be, there will be one. 

Thanks to modern technology we actually communicate less than we can in a sincere and detailed "Letter to the Editor.” On social networks, people express an opinion in three or four words and that’s it.

They do not convey hard information or a logical explanation that might help others to learn. Not only does the social network not add to knowledge, it helps cultivate the lazy habit of thinking in small sound bites, which after a while lead to not thinking at all. 

Many people reading this may think, “Hah, that’s all well and good and I even agree with you but I’m just not a writer.” Well, you can be. Let me use the example of public speaking. There are many people without a lot of education or practice who can get in front of a crowd and mesmerize them.  

How do they do that? How do they get over any inhibitions they may have? They speak of something that they know a lot about. I can remember one individual who was a very quiet, unassuming person but when asked to get up and say a few words about cooking with a cast iron — an obsession with him. He would be informative and entertaining.  

The same applies to writing. We all have things we have a particular interest in and knowledge of that would be useful to other people. When the occasion arises, share that with the rest of us. If you are a recent immigrant, comment on immigration issues. If you grew up very poor, share your wisdom with others. 

As they used to say in the old days of show biz, “Keep those cards and letters coming.” 

Dick Sakulich is a resident of Doylestown and a member of The Intelligencer/Courier Times Editorial Board.