A number of readers appreciated what we thought was a thought-provoking illustration that replaced our front page on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, but not all readers agreed.

Helen Apel of Madison wrote:

While the cover of the Monday mornings State Journal caught my attention, and made me stop to reflect about events of September 11, 2001, I was astounded to find NO further memories inside the State Journal aside from the list of victims names.

No photos, no brief recognition for the volunteers, no timeline or summary of the past 5 years of investigation / retaliation / changes in our daily lives, etc. etc.

And my goodness! No listing of what happened today 5 years ago in the TODAY IN HISTORY section on page A3! Some of the younger people in our city were too young to read 5 years ago. To blatantly leave out that important bit of history was negligent.

In addition, why did you choose to print an article on page one about "reviled atheists" banding together when it was those who have a true faith in a greater being, mine being God, who together brought this country through that time of turmoil 5 years ago? You should have given more thought before printing that on the first page. Perhaps for today it would have been more appropriate to gather evidence to support printing that article about atheists. Help the American society change their opinions of them and tell of all THEY did and do for the good of the country. Tell of all the volunteering they do for the love of their neighbor or strangers. Tell what makes them true Americans. How did they "band together" to help the victims?

You just missed it. While maybe a few people just don't want to read any more about the events of 9/11, we all still NEED to be reminded of the awful terrorist acts on our own soil to get us to be BETTER prepared for the future. We are still all maturing as American citizens. We need to Remember with something more that a photo with 2 candles.

Ken Hall was more succinct:

Hello. Today's front page was the biggest waste of newspaper space I've seen in a long time. I see in Isthmus that editor Foley wants the paper to be more relevant and useful to readers' lives. Today's front page was neither.

Ken's viewpoint is pure opinion but I felt compelled to respond to Helen's points as follows:

Our Sunday paper carried five stories and commentaries on 9/11. We set aside a full page for one of those article. And we ran stories almost every day the previous week covering many aspects of the attacks, their aftermath, and our readiness for possible future terrorism.

After all that, we thought a tribute to the victims would be the best use and most appropriate use of our front-page space on this day of remembrance, and we hope it helped set the stage for a day of sober reflection by all of our readers Monday.

I'm sorry you were disappointed by our approach.

I'm interested in other views of course. Feel free to join the forum on this one.