“Our media is doing its best to have us believe that only two people are running for president,” Ann Brown of Bremerton wrote in a letter to the editor.

“Why ignore Jill Stein, who is not a Democrat or Republican? She belongs to the Green Party. Do the people even know that she believes like Bernie Sanders, that it’s time for Wall Street to bail out student loans, since We the People bailed them out? Why isn’t she allowed in the presidential debates?”

Brown presents a good argument.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are, indeed, not the only candidates for president. And voters do deserve, as Brown writes, “to hear more than the opinions of two presidential candidates.”

We agree.

It’s past time for Americans and the media to give equal attention to candidates from other parties. America is not a two-party system; the Green and Libertarian parties are not fringe parties, but are led by candidates who are trying to raise awareness of issues and present possible solutions. It’s to our benefit to consider those issues and ideas.

There’s nothing “fringe” about a candidate who is a physician, a former elected city official, a two-time candidate for governor of Massachusetts, and author of an initiative to move the Massachusetts economy to renewable energy and to make development of green jobs a priority. That’s Stein, a former Democrat. Her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, is founding executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., and has served on the boards of Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Africa Action, among others.

There is nothing “fringe” about the Libertarian Party’s candidates: Gary Johnson, former two-term governor of New Mexico (1995 to 2003); and William Weld, a former U.S. assistant attorney general, two-term governor of Massachusetts (1991-97), and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Both are former Republicans and their ticket is reportedly the first to feature two governors since 1948.

There are other candidates as well.

So-called “third party” candidates have long been a force in American politics and have effected the outcome of 10 presidential elections. Now, as then, candidates from other political parties have used their candidacies to present alternative ideas on campaign finance reform, defense, the economy, education, energy and the environment, foreign policy, and other issues.

We’re not taking sides here. We’re just saying that it’s to our benefit to listen and consider — and to give all presidential candidates qualified for the ballot a fair hearing.