Standard columnists also top letter writers

A pair of Southern Standard columnists were recently lauded for their letter-writing skills by the Nashville Tennessean.

Both Thomas B. Vaughn and Mike Vinson received Gold Star certificates at the annual Three-Star Forum Banquet at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel. For 67 years the newspaper has ?hosted the dinner to honor the previous year?s most outstanding letters to the editor and the readers who penned them.?

On its opinions page The Tennessean prints seven to nine letters to the editor per day, depending on length, with the most effective letter, chosen by The Tennessean editors, appearing first on the page, thus receiving a three-star designation.

Gold Star certificates are presented to individuals who have been three-star winners in at least three separate years. Vaughn has been a winner in three years, and Vinson has received eight awards total, so both received Gold Star status. Vinson and Vaughn have penned letters on a variety of topics which have been selected as three-star letters.

?They?ve run the gamut really,? Vaughn said. ?I?ve written about the need for better teachers. I wrote a letter on the need for the military and the media to understand each other?s roles. I guess my first three-star letter was on what I call the ?Shumaker shenanigans? about president Shumaker up at the University of Tennessee who had all those ?conspicuous consumption? things in his house and all that. He resigned eventually. I think that was my first three-star letter.?

Vaughn said his first letter to the editor was to the Southern Standard while he was still in the military, and he has been writing them ever since.

The letter writers, like the subject matter, run the gamut as well, Vaughn noted, coming from a variety of age groups, backgrounds and political leanings, including liberal and conservative and everything in between.

Another interesting aspect of the dinners is that each winner gets a minute to speak to the assembled crowd. This year both Vaughn and Vinson took the opportunity to promote Warren County, which they feel has taken a beating recently.

?A lot of the folks take that time to bash Bush or chastise Cheney, which is their right to do,? Vaughn said. ?But after a while it gets a little old. So Mike and I decided to do something more positive.?

In his talk, Vaughn told fellow letter writers that despite, ?being pilloried by sexual scandals and tornadoes,? his home county had many charms and was a great place to live. Vinson promoted Warren County as ?Nursery Capital of the World? with his minute.

Though both men don?t shy away from political opinions and subject matter in their letters, Vinson says his first three-star letter dealt with sports, rather than politics.

?The first time I ever got published as a three-star winner was right after Walter Payton died,? Vinson said. ?It was a commemorative to him, a respectful piece for him because he was so brave even there at the last.?

Like Vaughn, Vinson says there are times when he feels inspired to respond in a public forum.

?My impetus for writing is when something has a significant effect on me,? Vinson said, ?and I feel like it needs to be addressed. It?s not like I aspired to be a three-star winner, but then it happened with the Payton letter.?

Vinson went so far as to say the publication of letters to the editor is a result of the freedoms our country?s founders set out to guarantee in the constitution.

?The foundation for this is First Amendment rights, freedom of speech,? Vinson said, ?since it gives the public an opportunity to express their opinions, and we should be very grateful, because there?s some countries you can?t do that in.?

Vaughn?s column appears every Sunday in the Standard, while Vinson writes columns periodically.