There was plenty going on in our world in 2024, and Gazette readers had a lot to say about all of it on our Opinion pages.

The people are best served in our democracy when they have an opportunity to express their views to their neighbors and friends. To criticize and cajole, to advise and educate, to persuade and compliment, on all matters of public interest.

To help facilitate the public discourse, we welcome and encourage our readers to share their perspectives in our letters section, dedicated exclusively to “Your Voice.”

Last year, The Gazette published 1,509 letters from 887 individual writers — both numbers of which are significantly higher than the year before.

As one might expect, the topic on which you most shared your voice in 2024 was the presidential election and politics in general.

In fact, more than 660 of the letters we published, or about 44 percent, were about political issues.

Donald Trump, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were among the most talked-about figures.

Readers also had a lot to say about the governor and their representatives in the state Legislature and U.S. Congress.

Besides national, state and local politics, the situation in Israel and Gaza was a hotly debated topic among readers last year, as was immigration, the Supreme Court, the Electoral College, climate change, equal rights, abortion and many other subjects.

Readers also had a lot to say about what was going on in their own local communities.

If you live in Niskayuna, Rotterdam or Saratoga Springs in particular it seems, you learned a lot about what your neighbors thought about the politicians, taxes, water rates, schools, trash, public safety, the St. Clare’s pensioner situation, traffic conditions and more.

We welcome you to share your thoughts on virtually any topic.

We allow a generous 250 words for regular letters and 200 words for election-related letters.

The limits allow us to publish all the letters we receive in a timely manner, almost always within 10 days after we verify the letter with the writer.

Writers must sign their names — no anonymous letters are allowed — and writers may only have one letter published every 30 days in order to give as many people an opportunity to share their voice as possible.

We do our best to allow people to freely express their views in the manner they see fit. But we do reserve the right to edit letters for grammar, style, libel, accuracy and offensive language.

Readers are strongly encouraged to fact-check their letters with reliable sources in order to reduce the chances of their letters being delayed or rejected.

We do not reject any letters based on the writer’s political point of view or particular stance on an issue.

But while the vast majority of letters we reject each year are due to the writer exceeding our word limits, we do occasionally reject letters that contain an unacceptable amount of verifiably false information.

In addition to letters, we invite readers with proven expertise on certain topics to take a position on an important current issue related to that topic through our Guest Columns.

And recently, we began offering readers an opportunity to express their thoughts in more depth on a broader range of topics through our new Friday feature, Readers Forum. Proposals for guest columns and readers forums must be submitted to the editor and approved in advance.

As we do at this time every year, we dedicate this space to thank each and every one of you for sharing your voice with our readers during the year.

We hope you continue to write in 2025, and we hope those of you who haven’t written will consider joining the conversation.

Thank you all, and best wishes for a happy new year.

— Mark Mahoney, Editorial Page Editor.

2024 LETTER WRITERS

Steven Abelson

Christopher Adamek

Janet Aery

Thomas Aery

Stacie Agostino

William Aiken

Linda Albee

Vince Alescio

Al Alexander

Curt Alheim

Daniel Almasi

Jason Ambrosino

Mary Anderson

John Angilletta

Dave Antolowitz

Mary Ann Arcesi

Alex Ardieta

Walter Arendt

Eleanor Aronstein

Phil Arony

Mike Arthur

Aram Atashian

Daniel Atonna

Barbara Auerbach

Rich Azzopardi

Laurie Bacheldor

Tina Bacon

Hugh Baillargeon

Mary Baker

Harry Bala

Bruce Ballan

Susan Bane

Renee Barchitta

Jason Bare

Rosemary Barger

Mark Barkyoumb, Sr.

Dave Barnes

Diane Barney

Fred Barney

Amanda Barone

Phil Barrett

Jackie Bashkoff

Nancyjane Batten

Bob Becker

Maxine Becker

Joanne Bedell

Steven Bederian

Anil Beephan

Joanna Begg

Bob Belive

Deborah Bender

Doug Bennett

Patricia Bennison

Lew Benton

Steve Benton

Frank Berlin

David Bianchi

Charles Bishop

Christine Bishop

Christopher Bishop

Julia Kirk Blackwelder

Jim Blaise

Valerie Bloomer

Jennifer Reilly Bluma

Michael Boehm

Mark Bohne

Anthony Boniewski

David Bopp

Sherry Bornt

Robert Boska

David Bouck

Patty Bowers

Chip Bowles

Gordon Boyd

Michael Boyer

Donna Bracchi

Karen Bradley

Mike Brandi

Spee........

© The Leader Herald