Opinions, please

A wise man once said that if you annoy people and do stupid things on Haida Gwaii, life becomes very painful for you here.

We all know where everyone lives, he said, and we know where each other’s wives and husbands work and live. And maybe that social pressure is what saves us from doing anything really stupid.

I hope the wise man won’t mind me revealing it was Dale Lore, and he was talking on a recent Monday morning with Matt Galloway of CBC Radio’s The Current.

I’d like to agree, and sometimes I do.

I often think we won’t do anything too stupid reporting for this newspaper because we live here and have to shop in the same grocery stores as everyone else.

But even in the playful way he meant it, I think Dale and others would agree that kind of social pressure can get dark at times.

At its worst, it veers into intimidation. And crowds aren’t always right — bad or mistaken ideas get popular sometimes.

Thankfully, Dale is a big talker, and a few years ago he said another thing about differing opinions on Haida Gwaii that I'd like to put more faith in.

He said the person you’re angry at today is someone you might need next week.

Keeping that in mind, I want to point out that we really welcome opinion writing.

High on page 7, we have a regular spot in the newspaper for opinion pieces.

We want to keep that space open for elected leaders especially, but also for non-profit groups and anyone else with something to say in their own words about a topic they know well.

We are really grateful to everyone who has contributed so far, from local MLA Jennifer Rice and local MP Taylor Bachrach to David Suzuki, former Tahayghen Elementary teacher Jenny Nelson, local writer Elin Dieme, David Archer of the Haida Gwaii Accessibility Committee and Beng Favreau of Literacy Haida Gwaii.

If you think you might like to write an opinion piece (or want to volunteer a friend to write one), please get in touch.

We also welcome letters to the editor. We’ve already had some good ones, including a delicious take on Giulio Piccioli’s spruce-tip key lime pie recipe by a couple who actually baked it.

With letters, we’ve learned that a cap of about 800 words works best. Our paper is tiny. And after receiving a few anonymous letters lately, we’ve also learned that as much as we would like to share everything that comes in, we should usually insist that people include their names and the community they live in.

We realize that’s a lot to ask. But it’s one of the things that sets a public letter apart from anonymous online sniping.

We all make mistakes. Here’s hoping we make fewer when something’s got our name on it.

— Andrew Hudson