Fresh thinking; how refreshing

I want to let you know how much I have enjoyed columnist Esther Cepeda.

With many contributors to your Opinion pages, simply seeing the headline and noting the name of the writer will tell you pretty much everything the writer will have to say on a subject.

This seems to be the case for writers on all sides of political and social spectra. Cal Thomas doesn’t like the way President Obama has inserted himself into the Trayvon Martin discussion: Who’d have thought that? Leonard Pitts could have been Trayvon, too: I’m stunned!

This is why Cepeda is so refreshing. She does not pass along any party’s daily talking points, and she doesn’t repackage her own ideology for the hundredth time. She actually thinks about an issue before she writes about it. This gives her the capacity to surprise her reader in a way few writers can.

Today, I just finished reading her column on the effect of posting calorie counts by fast-food establishments (“New habit: count calories,” July 25). Her analysis of the “pass/fail” style of research on the effect of providing calorie information to the public should be required reading for both nutrition researchers and policy makers.

STEVE MASON
ROANOKE

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