December 7

Congratulations to you for the recognition accorded you by the Bladen Journal in appointing you to be its editor. Congratulations also to General Manager Robin Walker and others of the Journal management who acted with much wisdom in choosing you for this responsibility.

You will be serving your community quite well as you fulfill the kind of standard you described for yourself in your column in the Nov. 27 edition, “Filling some important shoes.” Thank you for setting such a standard for your services as editor, and best wishes to you in your efforts.

I was most pleased to see D.G. Martin’s column, “Ozymandias and statutes of slaveholders,” published in the newspaper Nov. 20 (which, coincidentally, was the first issue where your name appeared in the block on the Opinion page as Editor). I feel that D.G. Martin’s most recent and timely column reinforces the point which I made in my earlier e-mails, that sharing D.G.’s wisdom and insights regularly is a significant way for the Journal to prod and expand the thinking of us who are your readers. Certainly it appeared that Mike Simmons recognized the value of sharing D.G.’s thinking with our community, and I hope that will be one of the ways in which you will “follow in Michael Simmons’ footsteps” and “fill his shoes,” as you state it very astutely.

Thank you for taking on this important responsibility for the betterment of Elizabethtown and our Bladen County community, of serving as editor of our community newspaper.

John R. Goodman

Elizabethtown

Congratulations on your promotion. If you advance as an Editor as you did as a reporter and columnist, the Bladen Journal will be in good hands for a long time. Good luck!

James Davis (formerly of Bladenboro)

Peoria, AZ.