You make choices every day concerning what current event issues to cover. The decisions are critical to keeping the reading public alert to hot issues affecting the welfare of countless populations across the globe and here at home. It is with regret that I have to write to complain that the March 4 edition of the Maine Sunday Telegram did not cover what is happening in Syria daily.

Historian Alexis de Tocqueville wrote admiringly of American democracy, as did the Belgian author and longtime Maine resident Marguerite Yourcenar. It was as a student of French in Tours, France, that I happened to see an interview of Yourcenar by Bernard Pivot, famous host of the now-defunct French TV show “Apostrophes,” where I saw the likes of Americans Yourcenar and Gore Vidal (speaking impeccable French) waxing eloquent about cultural topics. I won’t forget Pivot’s curiosity when Yourcenar exclaimed that she would often take part in protest marches on Mount Desert Island against or in favor of prevailing issues of concern in the world.

We Americans have a strong Constitution that allows us to voice our concerns at the top of our lungs in spite of what negative forces hold sway in the world. My plea to your newspaper is a request to keep the reading public on top of what is happening locally as well as internationally so we can exercise our constitutional rights by protesting to our elected representatives as the need arises.

Syria – with Russian collusion (the same Russia that blithely acts to interfere in our U.S. electoral process) – needs to be held accountable by the international community for its actions to stymie public dissent regarding living conditions in Syria. Please do your part in making sure that no stone goes unturned in this process.

Meridy Lippoldt

Portland

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