The Orlando Sentinel occasionally publishes my comments on its opinion page as a letter to the editor. Today, for the second time, I received an anonymous letter via snail mail disagreeing. The “disagreeing” is fine. The “I know where you live” part not so much.

It isn’t hard to find me: The Orlando Sentinel publishes my full name and home town. But since the appropriate response to a letter to the editor is to write the newspaper rather than me, it’s odd to say the least. This letter, however, doesn’t need any creative, non-family language bleeped out. The earlier letter did.

I have to assume one of the following:

• They wanted to “get in the last word,” and a letter without a return address or name guarantees it.
• They want to stop reading opinions that fall to the left of their own.
• They’re frustrated with the current state of affairs and blowing off steam.
• They want to “own the Democrats” and see me as a proxy for the entire party. (I’m not, and they clearly didn’t discover my hard-to-find blog.)
• They think I’m important. If so, I thank them.
• They want me to stop writing via a subtle “we know where you live” threat.

Here’s my letter that appeared in The Orlando Sentinel’s opinion page on April 6, 2025 (headline is the Sentinel’s, letter is mine):

Seek common ground

The USA is a messy place. Unless you consider indigenous people – which we rarely do – immigrants from around the globe brought a mishmash of cultures, religions and ethnicities. Freedom means we have no obligation to even like them. However, it also means we should celebrate a land where we can walk side-by-side in relative harmony with the people we find strange and occasionally think, “What a cool place to live.” That’s why we need DEI. It’s honoring America’s “We the people” obligation to support each other, and that includes people we may not like very much.

And here’s the anonymous response that showed up in my mailbox on April 11, 2025:

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