Some of you know three friends and I started a community
newspaper over five years ago. It was called the Warrenville Sentinel.
Warrenville is a small suburb of 13000 people 30 miles west of downtown Chicago as the crow
flies.
Twenty four volunteers joined out effort and produced a rich
newspaper of 12 to 20 pages on a weekly schedule. We mailed the paper to every
household and business served by our town’s post office. Reaction from town
folk was positive. They wrote letters to the editor, submitted countless
articles on class reunions, church doings, births, weddings and, of course,
deaths. Along the way we received memoirs of elderly people who long ago left
town for retirement digs. One woman provided her story of the 1930’s. Of course
we younger residents were surprised to hear related stories from this woman’s
long lost friends!
Our town is one of those that sticks together through thick
and thin. Although suspicious of each other, the churches band together to help
those less fortunate. If a family loses their home in a devastating fire the
rest of the town comes together, raises funds, donates household goods and
helps the family get back on their feet.
A breadwinner in his late 30’s contracted a fatal form of
cancer; he had 8 kids and he was an electrician out of work during the
recession. The community raised over $30,000 to keep the mortgage paid, food on
the table and clothes for each of the kids.
Yes; we take care of our own. We discuss public issues in due
course. We don’t agree with everyone else on these matters, and some town hall
meetings get a little boisterous; but all in all we get along and encourage
elected officials to get on with the town’s business and make decisions. Work
gets done. Local government is good and has a strong consensus. Not always, but
most of the time.
Our paper lasted 6 or 7 months when the publisher started
fooling around with our copy and changing it before it went to the printer.
Trouble was he was not a resident of our community but a neighboring one. His
antics began to be noticed and our readers became upset. He was throwing a
monkey wrench into our civil discourse. People began to argue.
So I resigned from the paper and nearly every one of the
volunteers left with me. The paper folded shortly thereafter. Seems the
publisher had done this to others in the past as well. In fact he had a bad
reputation for manufacturing news and printing it in other local papers.
Well, he lives in Winfield ,
Illinois Chicago
and has a commuter rail station in its downtown.
When we started up another new newspaper, this one named
Village Chronicles, we served Warrenville and took full control of the paper’s
content. We hoped to provide neighboring towns the same local coverage so
introduced our paper to West Chicago (population
26,000) and Winfield. For the other two communities we distributed by hand 1200
copies of our paper to high traffic locations.
Later the Chamber of Commerce asked us to distribute a
business news section once each month. The new ad revenues allowed us to mail
to all addresses in Winfield in addition to continuing mail deliver to
Warrenville. West Chicago was still hand
delivered at 12 high traffic sites.
Finally two months ago a volunteer corps of writers in
Winfield asked to write stories of local interest and cover Village Hall,
church life and other events in the community. We were relieved to have local
help writing good stories from within the community.
In essence this allowed us to provide a custom paper for two
separate towns and we were thrilled! The
giddiness lasted two months. Here’s why.
Winfield is a very Republican town in a very Republican
county. It has more than its share of Tea Party Republicans and conservative
mainline Republicans. For years these
people discussed civic matters with gusto and passion. The result was argument
and feuds that would make the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s blush. In sum discourse in
town was anything but civil.
As a matter of fact two small newspapers attempted to ply
their trade in town but both were politically biased. One was the old
Warrenville Sentinel’s publisher. We already knew how he practiced journalism!
Problem became quickly evident, however: our new volunteer writers for Winfield were passionate
to offset political opinions of others. If we allowed this to occur in our
paper the uncivil discussions would continue and we would be a part of it. We
did not believe this was a good idea for us or journalism in general.
It seems the town is poisoned by its own incivility. And we were
caught in the middle.
I don’t want to be a part of their problem: a history of
incivility which derails the town’s progress and health. I feel their future
will continue down this road unless new leaders emerge to re-set the tone of
public discussion.
In case you have missed the parallel, many state
legislatures have this very same problem.
Illinois
certainly does. Democrats blame
Republicans, and vice versa, for everything, and nothing gets done. The state
is in dire financial straits but no one is lifting a finger to solve the
problem because neither side wants the other side to get credit for smart
leadership and problem solving!
Sound familiar? It should. This is the very same disease
infecting the US Congress. Nothing much gets done. The really important work
sits idle. Problems get worse. Hideous relationships get more hideous.
On this 4th of July, isn't it about time we each
agreed to hold our elected officials to the task of getting the public’s work
done? If they don’t we should find new candidates and replace each and every
one of them who pales from the challenge.
Are you with me? If yes, please write to your state senator
and representative tomorrow and list the issues that concern you. Tell him or
her that you will not vote for their retention unless the problems move forward
toward a reasonable solution.
Do the same with your congressman and senator in Washington DC
Nothing will change unless we take control of our own
government. After all, it is OF, FOR,
and BY the People. Last time I checked
that means you and I.
I promise to write. Will you? What a great way to observe
the 4th of July!
July 4, 2013
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