I realize that, to most of the readers of this blog, the following comments may be considered “preaching to the choir” but hopefully these thoughts will be a reminder as to the importance of the newspaper in a community.
If you’re not a member of the “newspaper chorus” perhaps my views will inspire you to consider adding a few moments of your busy schedule each day to peruse a newspaper to expand one’s awareness of current events, issues and concerns.
While enjoying a cup of tea (Lipton for this guy…nothing flavored!) and reading one of the several newspapers I get either delivered to my home, delivered to my office or purchased at a store along the way during my travels, I recalled several topics “my” newspapers provided for consideration over the past few weeks.
-My local school district, after passing a very large levy last spring, has announced they need to close a school, actually two schools and already anticipate being several million dollars in debt in four short years.
- The university in my town, spent over $ 200,000 in a search for a new school president and of the $200,000 plus dollars spent, about $ 186,000 went to a search firm. The kicker to the story? The candidate hired wasn’t even recommended by the search firm.
- The leadership of our community provided an update regarding the new police and safety services building we’re going to have built in our town (yes, after we also voted an income tax increase for city residents) They are in the process of making a decision regarding the site. Prior to the election, voters were told a site had been picked and negotiations with current landowners had gone well. Maybe not so much.
-Our professional sports teams have made some major changes in management and player rosters.
-Goodyear has completed the construction of a new and larger blimp.
-A number of local students earned recognition on either the honor roll or merit roll at their schools.
-It’s maple syrup time and there are several pancake breakfast opportunities on the weekends.
Several of these stories inspired letters to the editor, comments in a column that allows “call-in” anonymous remarks and some investigative journalism by one of the newspapers.
My point? Without a community newspaper, many of these topics, as important as they are to various individuals, may go unnoticed or in some cases unchecked. Each community member should be aware of issues like the aforementioned happening in cities, towns and villages all across our great country.
I firmly believe that an individual has a responsibility to be an INFORMED member of their community and for my two cents, or actually, .50 or .75 or $ 1.00 or even $ 2.00 per copy; there isn’t a better way to become informed on local issues than by reading a local newspaper.
As many newspapers advertise “Be informed” of “Get Smart”, I say “Get to it…and read the newspaper!”