LETTERS WELCOMELetters to the editor are welcome on virtually any subject. They must be signed and give the writer’s address and telephone number for verifica-tion. Letters of more than 250 words may be edited for length. We do not publish letters that condemn or praise business service. We do not publish poetry, open letters or letters to third parties. Letters from the same person will not be published more than once a month. Send or bring your letter to the Venice Gondolier Sun, 200 E. Venice Ave., Venice FL 34285. You can also fax signed letters to 941-484-8460 or email them to rdupont@venicegondolier.com. For more information, call 941-207-1000.

OUR VIEW

Sometimes it’s better not to report all the newsW hen a 13-year-old boy wins a

big award, everyone expects the local paper to print his

name and picture. What about when a 13-year-old boy slashes someone with a knife and is arrested for attempted murder?

No one can argue that a crime of that magnitude isn’t news; it’s even more newsworthy when a youth is the alleged perpetrator.

And a newspaper’s job is to tell its readers the news. Information about a crime can alert people to whether they may have been a victim, too, or wheth-er they need to protect themselves.

If the accused is an adult, there’s no debate: Publish his name and photo. If a 13-year-old is killed, his family wants his story told — publish his name and photo. But what about a 13-year-old boy accused of trying to kill someone?

We were confronted with that issue this week when the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office put out a press release

about a Venice Middle School sev-enth-grader who cut a jogger with a bread knife in Englewood. The release contained both the boy’s name and a photo.

Our company has had a policy of not printing the name or photo of anyone under age 16 who is arrested, regardless of the crime. Though the number is somewhat arbitrary, 16 is the age that triggers a number of rights and responsibilities under Florida law. For us, it’s been a bright line to try to differentiate between youths who might be able to turn their lives around if publicity doesn’t taint them too much and youths who are old enough to face the consequences of publicity.

This boy is 13, so why was there any debate? Because we needed to ask ourselves whether that policy is still valid in the age of social media.

Every time we’ve withheld the name of a youth who had been arrested, it meant we were deliberately giving

you less information than we could have about a serious community issue — violent crime. We gave the youth’s future a higher priority than telling the full story of his crime.

Back when newspapers were the sole major source of local informa-tion, that decision meant few people would know when a particular youth had been arrested. For better or worse, that youth got a break.

Today, even if we decide not to pub-lish the name of a youthful offender, everyone who has a social media account will know it almost as soon as he’s arrested, and might be able to see a video of whatever got him in trouble.

When our story comes out later without the name, it’s like printing a story about a sporting event and omitting the score.

There’s more to it, though. That story is certainly going to be posted on our Facebook page and will be widely read— and commented on. Postings about this case on other

pages have run the gamut from “poor boy, he needs help” to “Hang him at high noon,” and worse, even though he has yet to be formally charged, let alone convicted.

Knowing that some people are more than willing to sentence him to death without a trial, do we want to put the boy’s name out there so he and his family will be subjected to abuse by people who would be outraged if the same venom were directed at their son?

In the end, we decided to abide by our policy. We’ll never know whether that makes a difference in this boy’s life, but we hope that he will receive justice and then get his life on track. If there’s a chance that can happen, we’d hate to think we got in the way.

If you need to know the boy’s name or see his face, you can do that else-where, and those sources can explain why. We can’t say that publishing them is the wrong decision. It’s just not the right one for us.

Liking a lie won’t make it true

The Internet is a limitless source of information, and some of it is even true.

Unfortunately, a lot of it isn’t, and even more unfortunately, that doesn’t stop many people from forwarding it in emails or posting it on social media as if it were.

I got emails recently from two frequent correspondents who shall remain nameless because they send me a lot of things I enjoy. But they also like to forward items I have problems with.

It would be safe to say they and I are on opposite ends of the polit-ical spectrum, but that isn’t why I take issue with their emails. I’m not afraid of opinions that don’t agree with mine.

No, the problem I have is that they forward indiscriminately, as they did with the emails I’ve mentioned.

One purported to be a front-page story from Newsweek beating up on President Obama. The email trumpets how even that “extremely liberal” magazine has finally given up on him.

I say “purported” because the only accurate thing about the email is that the “story” being for-warded beats up on Obama, which is fine. I doubt even he himself would argue that his presidency has been without major errors.

But the “cover story” was actually an opinion column that appeared, not surprisingly, on a conservative website in 2011. Though its author has written for Newsweek, it was never published in the magazine.

Because I have a skeptical frame of mind, I felt compelled to check the email’s accuracy. I found out the truth about it in less than a minute and shared it with my correspondent, who explained that he decided to forward it because he thought it was current and he liked what it said.

The other email asked recipients to write “In God We Trust” on their snail mail in protest of the removal of a poster with that phrase from two Texas post offices, something that actually did happen — in 2002. The reason the posters were taken down was that they violated a regulation that only items pertaining to postal services may be displayed in a post office. It had nothing to do with the message on them — a message that has been on a stamp.

Again, I quickly found out the background to the email and informed my correspondent, who replied, “You probably realize that I just send the junk along.”

Yes, I do, and that’s precisely the problem.

I oppose censoring the Internet because I think people should make up their own minds about what they see there, or anywhere. My experience, though, is that too many people take information like this as gospel because they like it too. Sadly, the truth often loses in a popularity contest.

Maybe it’s just me, but when I forward or post something I feel that I’m vouching for it. I’d be mortified if I sent a bunch of people an email that turned out to be bogus, and I’d own up to the mistake rather than shrug if off as if I had delivered a sealed package whose contents I couldn’t inspect.

I wouldn’t expect someone to try out a recipe before forwarding it, but I do expect emails and posts on serious matters to pass a stricter test than “I like it.” What would you think of people who forwarded a vicious rumor about you just because they liked it?

It’s not as if you need to get Sherlock Holmes on the case. The problem with the Internet is also its virtue: You can find out virtually anything, usually with minimal effort — if you try to.

When someone doesn’t try, it suggests to me he or she didn’t want to find out that the informa-tion is false because he or she has enough integrity not to knowingly share false information. If you don’t know it’s false, however, you have “plausible deniability.” You’re just sending the junk along.

In my eyes, though, there’s really no difference. If there’s a red flag in an email — I contend there were several in these two — and you forward it without checking it out, you’re contributing to the sorry state of politics we all bemoan today.

It has always been OK in the minds of some people to tell lies about the opposition to achieve the greater good of getting their candidates elected or their policies advanced. But it shouldn’t be OK, no matter how you try to justify it: They started it, all’s fair in politics, etc. And today truth has no chance to keep up with the number of lies that can be created and circulated in the blink of an eye.

If we want politics to be some-thing other than a permanent mud-slinging match, we can do our part by not assuming that liking information makes it true and being willing to invest all of a minute or two to verify it or trash it, like we would if we didn’t like it.

I know you can do it. If I get emails from the opposite end of the political spectrum, then my conservative friends must as well, but they never send me anything pro-Obama or anti-GOP. That shows some ability to discriminate in what to forward or post, doesn’t it?

Harry “Give’em Hell” Truman is famously quoted as saying, “I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.”

Maybe we could try that for a change.

Email: bmudge@venicegondolier.com

MISSION STATEMENTTo be the superior quality, low-cost provider of information and advertising in the local communities we serve. We will continuously improve: the value of information provided to our customers; the value and results for our advertisers; the quality of life in our communities; the return on our stockholders’ investment … while providing a fair, challenging and rewarding workplace for productive employees.

Bob Mudge

OPINION8AWEEKEND EDITIONFEBRUARY 15, 2014 SUN NEWSPAPERS

GONDOLIER SUN EDITORRONALD DUPONT JR.

PHONE: 941-207-1218rdupont@venicegondolier.com

PUBLISHERTIM SMOLARICKPHONE: 941-207-1010FAX: 941-484-8460

| LETTERS FROM OUR READERSThank you to the community for its

support.Editor:

Lake Venice Women’s Golf Association and Susan G. Komen Foundation would like to thank the Venice communi-ty for its support of our Rally for the Cure on Jan. 29.

The business donors, hole sponsors and area golfers made this our most successful outing. This means so much to the people whose lives are affected by breast cancer.

Thank you so very much.Sue Howe

Venice

City should buy Fisherman’s Wharf

propertyEditor:

Recently, it has become public knowledge that the Fisherman’s Wharf property in Venice, along with the associated marina, other building and assets, is for sale.

Over the years there has been considerable controversy about the property, especially over plans of a previous owner to build high-rise condominiums on the site. The property is a valuable asset to the city of Venice and surrounding areas as a marina with restaurant and several smaller marine-oriented businesses.

If the city of Venice would acquire the property with the goal of retaining it as a public marina, while keeping the other working waterfront business already there, it would be a wonderful new attraction for the city. Most of the Sun Coast cities from Marco to Tarpon Springs have public marinas or mooring fields, so it would make Venice more competitive to have a city marina.

Moreover, it would squelch forever the threat of this valuable

public access to waterfront property being destroyed by yet another condominium project. There is already the good model of Sharky’s Restaurant at the Venice pier of a privately operat-ed facility on city property, and a similar city property in Sarasota is operated by Marina Jack (Jack Graham, Inc.).

Venice has the best access for sailing vessels to the Gulf of any city on this coast and I believe that the marina could be easily adapted for use as a base for a community sailing center, an addition to Venice that would appeal greatly to both residents and visitors.

This is a rare opportunity, that will not likely occur again, to salvage a valuable piece of working waterfront forever.

John LynchVenice

Red Cross to honor ‘Everyday Heroes’

Editor:March is Red Cross Month,

and we would like to recognize our “Everyday Heroes” who reach

out to help their neighbors when they are in need.

These everyday heroes are our volunteers who help disas-ter victims get on the road to recovery. They brighten the day of an injured service member in a hospital far from home. They take our classes and step forward to help someone having a heart attack or to save a drowning child.

March is also a great time to become part of the Red Cross. It’s easy. Household members can work together on a preparedness plan. People can sign up to take a class, volunteer their time or make a financial donation.

Our mission is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobiliz-ing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.

The Red Cross responds to nearly 70,000 disasters a year in this country. It provides 24-hour support to members of the military, veterans and their families; collects and distributes about 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply and trains millions of people in first aid, water safety

LETTERS | 9

WEEKEND EDITION • FEBRUARY 15, 2014 SUN NEWSPAPERS 9A

and other life-saving skills every year.

More than 96 percent of the American Red Cross’ work is done by volunteers.

Here in our area, the Southwest Florida Chapter responded to more than 100 local emergencies, assisted nearly 700 military families and trained over 6,700 people in lifesaving skills.

Red Cross Month is observed in dedication of everyone who supports our mission. We are grateful to people for their generosity that enables us to continue our work, and encourage everyone to become an “Everyday Hero” during Red Cross Month by helping their neighbors.

Brent Myers, ChairBoard of Directors

Southwest Florida ChapterAmerican Red Cross

Miles Mowry, his troupe need to be

recognizedEditor:

Congratulations to teachers Ian Ackroyd, Lisa Figueroa and the Venice School System for their accomplishments in being selected as Teachers of the Year in Sarasota County. Audrey Blackwell’s article certainly tells a most impressive story about the Venice School System and their teaching staff.

For those who were not at the inaugural Venice Veterans Gala held on Jan. 26th to see firsthand, there is yet another teacher with an equally impressive resume of ability, enthusi-asm and desire to motivate his students beyond the norm that should also be noted with equal admiration (even though unofficial).

The Venice Veterans Gala Committee approached Venice High School looking

for potential teacher and student volunteers to be-come involved in honoring WWII veterans in one form or another.

Venice High Teacher Miles Mowry with his “Thespian Troupe 3685” accepted the challenge and joined our committee tak-ing charge of decorations and, of course, working with entertainment.

Miles took everything to a fresh new level by having his students think outside of the box by researching the 1940s period of time via old magazine articles, ads, clothing fashions and news articles beyond the subject of the war itself.

They designed and painted professional look-ing stage backdrops and were able to borrow ’40s apparel/costumes from the Venice Theatre.

The day of the Gala, stu-dents arrived early to assist in the setup before greeting WWII vets and spouses and escorting them to special tables. The students

performed on stage and led everyone in singing “God Bless America” (everyone sang!).

The students, with exceptional outgoing personalities, mingled with the crowds and posed for photos continuously. Indeed, they were the “Icing on the Cake” for our event. I would add the stu-dents stayed well after the event to assist in cleanup and when the lights went out, Miles Mowry was one of the last ones out the door.

Venice High School and their parents have much to be very proud of.

Our committee decided to present them with a plaque of appreciation to be presented by Vice Mayor Emilio Carlesimo and Kit McKeon. When asked for Mr. Mowry’s official title, his simple email response was “I am happy to have the title ‘teacher.’”

In an age of so many specialties with emphasis

on titles, this was a response proving his great content of character and dedication to the teaching profession. Indeed, he is a teacher in the true sense of the word by involving his students as he did in having them think outside of the box as thespians to get into their characters.

More importantly, he took them beyond the boundaries of a high school performance and put them into the real world of entertainment to which they passed with flying

colors. It took many addi-tional hours of his personal time and pulled him away from his family but it was done without hesitation or complaint.

Bravo, Venice High School, Mr. Mowry and above all, students of Thespian Troupe 3685. We hope to see you back with us for honoring the Korean Conflict generation next year.

Kerry Diehl(Venice Veteran Gala

Chairman)Venice

LETTERSFROM PAGE 8

COURTESY PHOTO

Venice High Teacher Miles Mowry stands with his Thespian Troupe 3685 and was honored by the Venice Veteran Gala Committee.