To the Editor:

Author John Irving gave an interview to the Denver Post in which he explained that in the novel, “A Prayer for Owen Meany” he used “all caps” for the voice of young Owen, because Owen has “…a damaged-sounding voice; it has to strain. It’s always a little harsh-sounding—never soft. It’s irritating to listen to—like the effect of those capital letters…”

Author Irving was right, it is irritating to read, just like the letter written by the public officials from Chittenango and Sullivan who inappropriately used and cited their positions as public officials to endorse Mr. Keville, the mayor of that same village.

I found it disturbing to find myself reading the ALL CAPS LETTER for many reasons, but mostly because it made me think of a lot of questions.

For example, I wondered, did the authors write this while on village/town time?

Did they write it on village stationery? Send it from the village/town offices? Use the village/town servers and software?

Given the signatures, one would find it hard to believe otherwise.

Worse, were they asked by another public official to write the letter and to identify their public offices in order to try to add official weight to their opinion?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but we do live in the age of Trump where some Trump supporting politicians seem to talk in “ALL CAPS” and seem to feel that they can glide along the ethical edge, or even plunge over it, all without consequence. This endorsement was both inappropriate and irritating to the reader.

Mike Oot, Oneida

By martha

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