In response to J.B. Bouchard's letter

From the editor,

In his letter, J.B. Bouchard stated, “The Eagle’s new regime has eviscerated the vitality (sic) an opinion page widely known for its thought provoking local and interstate commentaries.” A few months ago, Bouchard submitted a letter to the editor that stated the following:

It’s time for the county and the town to diversify and adapt by embracing our new MAGA sociopolitical realities. Private prisons are an incredibly profitable enterprise. Their construction and staffing create jobs. They provide an important public service, storing and isolating those undesirable elements of society the federal government is now beginning to purge on a massive scale, presenting us with an opportunity of massive proportions. Let’s tap into those federal billion$ (sic) now available to ICE related projects and build the concentration camps and related processing facilities that will be necessary under the present federal administration to incarcerate those allegedly “tired, poor and dispossessed” criminals who dared invade our borders.

In my response to Bouchard’s letter to the editor, I stated, “As you will notice, we did not publish your letter in this week's paper. While I can appreciate your imaginative manner in writing this letter to the editor, I could not publish it as is. The suggestion of building ‘concentration camps and related processing facilities that will be necessary under the present federal administration to incarcerate those allegedly tired, poor and dispossessed criminals who dared invade our borders’ is truly too far as far as being fit for publication goes. Though we clearly state in our submission guidelines ‘views expressed do not reflect those of the editor or The Eagle Staff,’ we also state ‘the editors and publisher reserve the right to edit any letter and to reject any letter. I would like to invite you to revise your letter and, if you wish, resubmit it to us. If you do not wish to resubmit, but would like us to edit it ourselves before publishing it, we can do that as well. I will leave the decision to you.”

I would like to reiterate to our readers that we, as a newspaper, “reserve the right to edit any letter and to reject any letter,” and any letter recommending “concentration camps and related processing facilities” will not be published. I gave Bouchard the option to resubmit but he declined.

Kirk McKnight, Editor