Ordinary citizens do care.

An independent voice helps readers stay informed in an increasingly interdependent world.

In 1990 just before the Gulf War and in 1991, The Journal-Gazettes editorial board joined with Indiana-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, to host a day-long regional conference on international issues.

We brought in nationally known speakers - David Broder, Dick Lugar, Bill Maines, Randall Robinson, Rod McLeish - as well as academics and policy makers from the area. We had workshops and plenary sessions on a range of foreign policy questions, from the Mideast to South Africa.

The basic idea was to let ordinary citizens engage the experts in serious discussion on foreign policy.

Both conferences were overwhelmingly successful. Each drew audiences of about 500 people who asked questions, sometimes argued with the speakers, and otherwise listened attentively to matters far beyond their daily concerns.

It was a remarkable demonstration of interest of ordinary citizens in foreign policy. And it has made me ever mindful to be just as careful with the facts and scrupulous in my logic when I write on foreign affairs as when I write about the juvenile justice system in the county or school desegregation for the city district - that is, where local readers have some claim to expertise.

For my part, I can't imagine why an editorial page would not try to provide thoughtful and pointed commentary on international issues.

It goes beyond reader interest. What happens abroad affects us in this country.

There are policy decisions to be made. Sometimes, those decisions can be life-and-death matters for Americans. Readers need to be informed in order to register their will on these decisions with our elected leaders.

Moreover, we're increasingly bound up with other countries in a world economy and vast communication system. A newspaper is in an unusual position. It has the resources to draw on so that it can intelligently address foreign policy questions. And a newspaper, somewhat removed from political parties and special interests, can offer a more objective viewpoint.

International editorials offer something else, too. They assert values that transcend national boundaries. They can raise readers' consciousness about Rwandans and Bosnians and the Kurds in northern Iraq. If the editorials are concrete and occasionally personal, they can help readers develop empathy for the suffering of others around the world, even inspiring readers to help mitigate that suffering. (At times of famine, flood, or refugee crisis, we will list relief agencies with the editorial on that topic.)

A few of my own preferences on such editorials:

* They should mention where the state's senators and House members stand and the role they play in an issue. I like to make direct appeals to these members of Congress when we want them to take a certain position.

* I like such editorials to be of no longer than moderate length - just long enough to explain the basic issue and make the argument. I see a lot of very long foreign policy editorials in other newspapers. We run them ourselves occasionally. Such editorials tend to get bogged down in analysis. Leave that to the syndicated columnists.

* I use syndicated writers who enjoy a reputation for foreign policy commentary for a reality-check on our own positions. Every paper should carry a couple of the best such columnists. Most of them are happy to give editorialists some background. You can always drop their column if they won't give you the time of day.

* Write with humility. None of these issues is simple. Any discerning reader will turn off the pompous and overwrought editorial.

Our editorial "Clinton too quiet" by deputy editorial page editor Evan Davis, reprinted below, illustrates some things I like to see in a foreign policy editorial.

The lead is direct, even punchy. It connects nicely with a syndicated column on the page that day. And it calls on the president to lead the country in asserting its highest ideals.

NCEW member Larry Hayes is the editorial page editor at The Journal-Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind.