Voice, Face and Feel

Some years ago a small band of us formed a community newspaper and began writing stories covering our town. Our Letters to the Editor section was entitled Voices. It was our way of encouraging people to speak up on ideas that mattered to them. Their opinion was solicited. We cautioned them to be polite, of course, and we omitted letters of fiery rhetoric and hurtfulness.

Voices were heard often. Yes, they did stir up opposition from time to time, but the temper of the newspaper was positive and upbeat. We called a spade a spade in news stories, but we also kept the pipeline open for official comments from those in authority in order to keep the account accurate and on point. Over the years we built trust and reliance with the community that we would cover their happenings well. And accurately.

In time the voice of the newspaper became a good reflection of the community’s voice. It was a good thing then. Not always liked or trusted by everyone but deep down I think they knew we were giving everyone a fair shake at the truth. We also inserted a lot of logic and perspective to the coverage; history is a helpful piece of that perspective!

So, we had a ‘voice’ in town, and in return they had a ‘voice’ as well in their own community. The bottom line of any newspaper is that quid pro quo – trusting and giving so we can trust and receive.

Our photographic coverage of town was more challenging. We had an excellent staff photographer and editor, but we had so little space to give proper weight to photos. A full page photo would be terrific at times, but we simply didn’t have the space to devote to this photo-editorial treatment. Through the years we lost several citizens; we covered their deaths with front page stories and hearty obituaries. But often we knew what we truly needed was a large photo of the deceased. Such would hold our attention by the sparkle of their eyes and the hint of a knowing smile. Character and personality shines through such photos just when we need them. But we didn’t have the luxury of space and budget to offer this treasure to our readers.

The ‘face’ of our community was thus offered in word rather than photo. Oh, we printed photos of events and fires and floods and beauty, but we didn’t publish photos of people very much. We simply had to be satisfied with word pictures of the mind. We knew we missed readership because of this. So many times readers suggested photo stories of local athletics, especially of the youngest among us. We agreed; our check book didn’t! Oh well. And yes, if you counted, photos were maybe 2 per issue; a few times we had 5 or 6, but those were rare editions.

So, we had ‘voice’ and a little ‘face’ in our paper. The third element was feeling. Oh we had a lot of that. Our town of 13,000 is marked by its feeling. It cares about its people and their welfare. It cares about its landscape features and landmarks. It cares about its traditions and history, too. A volunteer-spirited community, too. The fire department began that way. So did the library. Much of the town's government was small and voluntary. In later years state standards as well as a community’s desire to excel pressed all government entities to strive for excellence. And they did in time. One needs only to observe the culture of pride in the local fire department to understand what I’m saying here.

But then the library was nurtured and grown into quite the small town treasure. Later tax referenda and a burgeoning TIF district allowed the library to rebuild and gain a major future of professionalism and excellence. So too the park district. A state award winner in excellence and achievement, the park district continues to delve deeply into the community to discern needs and programs.

And city government has replaced all of its buildings with new, energy efficient structures designed to last a long time and meet the needs of the town for its foreseeable future. Infrastructure is in place, well funded, and very well maintained. Police services are top notch and well relied upon. Snow removal is legendary among our neighboring suburbs. Ours are the first streets to be scraped clean of every snow storm!

This is a community that cares about each other. Governing entities are blessed with this type of community. The citizens know their public life is in good hands. They remain aware of the happenings and respond to requests of assistance.

That’s much more difficult these days without a weekly newspaper. But then social media is picking up the tasks and the community is finding a new way of voice, face and feeling. Indeed. Social media has room and full color for faces. Now the voice and feeling take a little more effort, but both are there in abundance. Ours is a blessed community that knows itself well.

Multiply this by 100,000 towns throughout the nation and you have a good picture of America’s soul. This is where life is lived and perfected. Indomitable.

August 3, 2017