A RECENT LETTER to the editor (“Thought missing in chicken column,” Oct 18) chastised the paper for carrying two stories (combined 1,300 words) challenging laws against raising chickens and livestock in the city of Rome. The author of the letter correctly noted that long ago Rome City fathers saw fit to keep chickens and other animals out of the city. It made sense at the time. It might still make sense.

But then the author suggested that there is something wrong with the mentality “If you don’t like a law, just tell your elected officials to change the law, because you are somehow special.” No one should have laws changed on his behalf because he has clout. But every Greater Roman should feel entitled to use the free press and due process that our Constitution guarantees to promote his concerns and causes. A combined 1,300 words of newsprint is not overly generous (and the reader can skip the articles if he finds them onerous, doesn’t care to read them or thinks he knows better).

Traditions, technology, attitudes and, thus, laws change. Every great advance our country has made e.g. the expansion of voting rights, civil rights for blacks, education reform, environmental protection, and labor reform, among others, happened because someone had the opportunity and gumption to ask, “Wouldn’t it be better if...?” If one doesn’t care to be part of a living democracy, that’s fine, but suggesting that “Delta is ready when you are” cuts both ways.