Times have changed, but we still need a local newspaper

Early one Sunday morning more than 20 years ago, I traipsed downstairs to find one of my four children, my 12-year-old daughter, Alexandra, scribbling away at the dining room table. “What are you doing?” I sleepily inquired. “Writing a letter to The Washington Post!” she answered. The “Sunday papers” had been a fixture in our household for many years. Alexandra’s mother and I encouraged our kids to take an interest in current events by subscribing to several newspapers and by reading interesting articles from the papers out loud to them. So our “tween” had read the Sunday papers and taken offense at one of the news articles (about the content of books in schools). She was familiar enough with the Post’s op-ed page to believe a letter to the editor was in order. Her letter ran the next weekend.