I wish The Day would take a fresh look at your columnists, sorting out those who add something positive to a reader’s day and those who make one’s world worse.

There are two I particularly value: Jon Gaudio because his columns are so positive, so evocative, so honest, and so rich with the senses of sight, sound, taste, and smell. Jon shows how memory can inform a life moving forward. And Lisa McGinley because she knows and understands this community so deeply and brings that knowledge to bear constructively on the challenges we face.

The heart sinks, on the other hand, to open The Day and find David Collins once again fulminating about something, blaming people for something, implying but not quite actionably asserting bad faith wherever he looks. So depressing. Worse yet, so boring. Especially in these sad times.

To me, Lee Elci is a special case. I do not often agree with him, at least not in full. But he is stimulating. I respect his integrity and his way of taking a position without demeaning opponents. And the guy can write.

Peter Stanley

Groton