We in Walker County have been experiencing one of the hottest summers on record, and that’s just the weather.

Our local political climate also has been heated.

Walker residents seem to be a vocal group who want their views heard, and we at the Walker County Messenger do what we can to accommodate public dialogue. We allow readers to comment on stories printed online. We encourage folks to email letters to the editor for publication in our weekly print edition and online.

We do not favor one candidate, political party or viewpoint over another. As a registered Walker County voter, I made my personal opinions heard by voting early last week. As a community journalist, I keep my personal opinions to myself, unless I write an editorial column for the opinion page.

We do prefer to have letters to the editor emailed to us, rather than sent by snail-mail. It saves us time when editing for length and clarity, and the letter has a better chance of meeting our Friday noon editorial deadline. We do not change the meaning of any letter. We do correct misspellings and check for proper grammar.

Some of our readers have recently expressed passionate opinions about candidates, ballot referendums like T-SPLOST and other issues in letters to the editor. We generally print these letters in the order we receive them. Sometimes, we simply run out of space on the page and hold a letter until the next week. From time to time, we might run some letters before others when they are time-sensitive, such as during an election.

Or a letter to the editor might be held until the authorship of the letter can be verified. If we cannot verify the authenticity of a letter, we will not publish that letter. We do not want to risk printing a letter written by someone who is not the true author.

The Messenger does not publish anonymous letters. We ask each letter-writer to include his or her name, address and a daytime phone number. We do not print a letter-writer’s address or phone number, just the name of the city or community where he or she lives.

The deadline for letters to the editor, and all other editorial submissions, is noon on Friday for the following Wednesday’s edition.

Email letters to walkercountymessenger@walkermessenger.com, and if you must use snail-mail: Walker County Messenger, 102 North Main Street, LaFayette, GA 30728.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Denise Etheridge is the assistant editor for the Walker County Messenger. She can be reached at 706-638-1859 or detheridge@npco.com.