The Covington News editorial board consists of Publisher Charles Hill Morris Jr., General Manager T. Pat Cavanaugh and Editor Jennifer T. Long. We three discuss what we want to editorialize on for each edition, although one of us usually ends up writing the piece.

We don't always agree on every editorial, but we try to reach a consensus that we are comfortable publishing under The Covington News masthead.

The News as a whole belongs to our readers - to you and members of this community. However, we reserve the two left columns of the opinion page for our thoughts. We are very proud of this space and hope it generates an open dialogue between the people in our articles, the people who write our articles and the people who read our articles.

For years the executive staff of The News did not publish local editorials. We on the editorial board feel that it is imperative for newspapers to have a voice - extolling the good in their coverage area as well as taking a stand against what we perceive as detrimental to our community. Many of you count on this paper to be your eyes and ears, a watch dog and a sounding board for Newton County and Social Circle. We strive to be just that.

From time to time we invite community leaders to sit down with us for informal discussions or provide us with guest columns that help us give us a clear picture of a certain situation so we can better formulate our opinions. We also call on our readers to provide us with their perspectives through letters to the editor. As you can see from today's letters, we try to run all letters as soon as possible unless they are slanderous or contain false statements.

You will not always agree with our editorials, and we welcome you to share your thoughts with us whether you do or not. Again, this is your paper and just because this is our space does not mean we don't want your help in constructing it.

Please share with us by e-mailing letters to jtlong@covnews.com, fax at (770) 786-6451 or mail to 1166 Usher Street, Covington, Ga. 30014.