Finding our way forward

By LAURIE STUART
Posted 1/5/22

In the newly released movie, “Don’t Look Up,” two astronomers discover a comet that will destroy the earth in six months, 14 days and a handful of minutes.

Thus begins the …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Finding our way forward

Posted

In the newly released movie, “Don’t Look Up,” two astronomers discover a comet that will destroy the earth in six months, 14 days and a handful of minutes.

Thus begins the frenetic storyline and the exploration of how the human race, particularly in the United States, responds to dire news of the world ending. For the next two hours, the dark star-studded spoof bursts into frenetic energy, exposing the cracks in our values and the turmoil of our post-modern divided world.

Some say the jokes fall flat and others are relieved that this popular movie is turning a critical and creative eye to the state of our nation and of the world.

We live in a time when our foundations, those things that we have always taken for granted—a livable planet, a representative government, civil discourse with our neighbors—are under stress and are caving in.

In reponse to the disruption, the River Reporter is embarking on a mission to explore the foundations of rural living. How town government works, what’s going on in the schools, the local economy and how it fuels recovery and pressures affordable housing opportunities. We want to help connect the dots. We want to go deeper into exploring and supporting community vision, the social structures that keep us connected and the stories, victories and difficulties that we individually and collectively face.

We invite you on that journey with us.

We invite you to encourage and support representative democracy. We invite you to help motivate ourselves away from our collective apathy and our feelings of being overwhelmed, and wake up to the tenuousness of the very foundations we rely on—and our own propensity to deny it.

Together, we can encourage civil discourse in the public square, one of the tenets of our democracy.

And it is there where we start.

We intend to dive deep into strengthening our ability to talk to one another, by covering stories from as many voices and perspectives as we can. We intend to dive deep by listening to what is important for you to know and to understand.

This is our resolution for 2022. We hope that your participation in this journey, of expanding our knowledge of the world around us and communicating with each other about our differences, is on your list of things to do this year.

"Don't Look Up, " comet, foundations, representative democracy, new year's resolution

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here