A new forum for readers' comments and criticism

Congratulate us. After a nine-month hiatus, The Inquirer gives birth today to a new commentary page. We're calling it Dialogue because its primary purpose is to produce conversations. We want readers and other contributors to share their thoughts on everything they think is important, from President Obama's foreign policy to Mayor Nutter's budget to why the Phillies can forget the playoffs this year - or not.

We expect most Dialogue conversations will concern the journalism that longtime readers have come to expect from The Inquirer, which, by the way, is celebrating its 185th anniversary. Through those years, this newspaper has produced groundbreaking articles that have celebrated the best in Philadelphia and exposed the worst.

Along the way, that work has been the recipient of numerous journalism awards, including 20 Pulitzer Prizes, the profession's top honor. The most recent recipient of a Pulitzer is Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, who just last week was presented her award for writing what the Pulitzer board said "blends expertise, civic passion, and sheer readability into arguments that consistently stimulate and surprise."

In a city like Philadelphia, with so many historic structures competing for space and relevance amid modern skyscrapers and humble abodes, Inga's observations have made a big difference in the quality of life.

One of the greatest values of Inga's columns has been in the responses they elicit not only from the architectural community but also from ordinary residents of this city who want to share their opinion with her. Dialogue is where they can do that.

It's where readers can expect the type of robust debate by letter writers and other contributors that occurred after publication of The Inquirer's 2011 Pulitzer-winning series, "Assault on Learning," which took a close look at violence in Philadelphia's schools. Public education, and its funding problems in particular, will no doubt be a frequent topic on future Dialogue pages.

Editorial pages are often criticized as simply being vehicles for a newspaper to try to tell people what to do or how to vote. But that should never be their intent. Providing a public forum for people to share ideas, concerns, complaints, and solutions is one of the most important functions a newspaper can provide. Opinions on the editorial page are meant to inspire or stimulate those conversations.

With Dialogue, The Inquirer is again reserving a preponderance of the space on its opinion pages for the general public's observations. During our hiatus without an oped page, too many readers who submitted letters and essays making salient points that should have been shared with others readers were denied that opportunity simply due to a lack of space. Now, that opportunity has been restored.

Does that mean every letter or essay submitted will be published? No, the topic chosen and quality of the argument made by the writer will always be the determining factors in making choices from among the hundreds of submissions that The Inquirer receives weekly. But we don't discriminate based on points of view. Whether you're conservative or liberal, you'll get equal consideration. Letters from Flyers fans aren't put in a special box.

Along with letters to the editor, essays, and commentary by experts in specific areas, other features may eventually be introduced on future Dialogue pages to help us engage readers in enlightening conversations. As always, we urge you to tell us what you do and don't like about all aspects of The Inquirer - though prompting typically isn't necessary to get you to do that.