Dear Editor,
Somehow, from the library discard pile in downtown Yellowknife, into my hands fell letters written by Thomas Jefferson. In one letter written from Paris on January 16, 1787 to a Colonel Edward Carrington, Jefferson wrote: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without a press or a press without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to choose the latter.”
What a guy! To think so cooly even after his many bitter complaints of the European press distorting the democratic achievements of the American republic. I wonder how many politicians these days would agree with him? Very few, I bet.
Bruce Valpy, Managing Editor at Northern News Service. Yellowknife, NWT.
