If you don’t write, you can’t
get rejected.

If you don’t get rejected, you can’t
get published.

Have you written a “letter to the editor” which has been rejected by a newspaper or other publication, but which you believe would enhance the quality of public awareness, discussion, and activism? We are soliciting letters like these for a unique new publication. We are looking for letters that transcend the systemic amnesia of the daily news, and will have ongoing relevance for our readers and potential authors. The letter need not be current, but it should still be pertinent or of historical interest.

In the press, “Letters to the Editor” pages silently assert that journalism includes a place for the voice of the public. But inconvenient truths are too often absent. Visionary thoughts are rarely heard. Proposals for democratic social change and improvement are, for the most part, out of sight. Rejected Letters to the Editor, a new inde-pendent online magazine, is designed to provide an important, if only partial, corrective.

RLTE can be found at http://www.rejectedletterstotheeditor.com.
It is available to readers at no cost.

Our goal at Rejected Letters to the Editor is to expand the visible spectrum of ideas. To publish letters that will broaden public discussion beyond the boundaries set by the gatekeepers of our mental environment. We hold to the democratic conviction that public opinion must be educated by, and conversant with, the course of human events, and we will seek to publish letters that allow essential perspectives, presently unacknowledged by respected newspapers, to see the light of day.

Our purpose is not to provide a dumping ground for every letter sent to a “letters page,” but to publish letters that editors knowledgeable in a variety of fields believe will add to public understanding of the pressing—and not so pressing—issues of our time. We are uninterested in contributing to the widely rumored problem of “information overload.” Through our editorial choices, we hope to add clarity and knowledge that is too often fugitive. Rather than adhering to the mind-numbing news cycle, we will be publishing fortnightly and maintaining an archive of all letters that appear in the publication.

Please address your submissions to rejectedletterstotheeditor@gmail.com

Your submissions will plant the seeds that will grow this publication and advance the goal of serious public discussion about the burning issues of our time. Your voice will inspire others, and the long-term results will be to enrich the terrain of democracy. Please let us know which publication you sent the letter to, the item (with date) you were responding to, and the best way to contact you if necessary.

As you will see when you visit the site, letters are organized under the following department categories:

—• Planet
—• Nation
—• Neighborhood
—• War & Peace
—• Immigration
—• Business & Economics
—• Education
—• Health
—• Labor
—• Science & Technology
—• Politics & Propaganda
—• Culture & Ideas
—• Memory & Amnesia
—• Beliefs

Even if you don't have a letter, please let others know about RLTE. If you are in contact with socially concerned people in your community, local associations, listservs or organizations committed to the principle of an inclu-sive, informed and engaged public, please spread the word and pass on this call.

Democracy is coming.

—Stuart Ewen, Editor-in-Chief
—Robin Locke Monda, Managing Editor
—Elizabeth Ewen, Editor-at-Large

EDITORIAL
(continued from the home page)

It provides the chance to deal with issues in ways that reach outside the boundaries of run-of-the-mill media coverage. And it presents a literary platform for underscoring the inherent inhibitions of ossified “news” for-mulas.

It allows words to speak; thoughts to be formulated; ideas about what might be—but isn’t—to be heard. If a bold editorial page honcho chooses to publish your letter, it will improve the quality of public dis-cussion. If not, it will dramatize the need to remake the landscape of ideas and information for thewenty-first century.

The future of a society of, by, and for the people depends on your voice. Many voices. Extended voices.

Write no matter what. Exercise your vocal cords. Sharpen your eloquence. Recondition your cognition.

Join with neighbors, friends, soul mates and kindred spirits to talk about the world and collaborate to change it. Flood the papers and the community with fresh rejoinders and far-seeing alternatives to the pressing concerns of our time. Move your ideas into every place where people gather.

And send unpublished letters to RLTE. Rejection is only a first step. We are committed to ensuring that letters that will expand the visual spectrum of ideas, those that can help make democracy more possible, will see the light of day.

Without each other, we are nothing. RLTE is here to help build con-nections, one letter at a time.

—Stuart Ewen, Editor-in-Chief
—Robin Locke Monda, Managing Editor
—Elizabeth Ewen, Editor at Large