Over the past few years I have sought a way to talk about how I think we can better serve our readers by bringing them more fully into civic life. You know there is a direct correlation between a person s sense of community and her readership of a newspaper. Thus we would do well to help readers and potential readers feel that they belong to the community. Unfortunately, I think we spend too much capital on coverage that shows the extremes of community issues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks.
Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.
I challenge myself and all of us to be optimists. We need to know how people are making decisions that we don t cover. We need to remember that PTAs are as vital to the functioning of a school as any principal is, and far more so than any board of education. We need to know that ministries are providing social services that far exceed those of government agencies. We need to recognize how much of an effect community associations have on the residents of those communities more so by far than an occasional city council foray.