Letters To The Editor

The Dallas News claims that, "letters will be edited for length, clarity and style." This one appeared on their Community Opinions page October 10, 2008, while the editor either had a day off or a hangover.

'Sin taxes' send wrong message
On returning from an early morning run to Target to pick up a few nonperishable food items and snacks for the Frisco Ballet's upcoming production of The Nutcracker, my daughter and I returned to our apartment to find lit Camel cigarette butts near our front door.
I am not a smoker. My husband, a former superintendent of public schools, used to smoke in high school and college, but he is no longer a smoker. (He was at work in Celina).
Our state uses the sin taxes placed on alcohol and tobacco to help fund public education. We as citizens need to send a strong message to Austin and tell them, "no, thank you" on the "sin tax" funding to help support public education in our state.
Are we telling our youth the only way we can pay for their deserved public education is through these types of taxes?
Cathy Burks, Frisco

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Does the reader need to know that she went to Target, what she bought, what the purchases were for and the brand of cigarette? That's just the first sentence.

Does the reader need to know the past profession of her husband or that he was in Celina at the time? That's the second sentence.

As a matter of fact, does the newspaper even need to print this letter, other than to make their readers laugh?