editorial

The final ask

By LAURIE STUART
Posted 11/11/20

In the last three weeks, we have asked you to support community newspapers, to vote with your heart and values, and to support the local business community by recognizing and expressing your …

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editorial

The final ask

Posted

In the last three weeks, we have asked you to support community newspapers, to vote with your heart and values, and to support the local business community by recognizing and expressing your appreciation of their work and service. (Vote for the BEST at www.bit.ly/TRRBestof2020!)

Now, as we all persevere through the election process and exercise patience until all votes are counted, we ask you to trust the process and to trust the paper. Let’s have a do-over of how we talk with each other about our values, our vision and our concerns for our community and our nation.

We ask that you trust that River Reporter is a safe place that will respectfully hold your opinions, your experience and your story. We ask that you be in dialogue with each other through our pages, both in print and online.

It is not impossible for people with diverse opinions to talk to each other, as many have told me in the past. This newspaper can hold that space, of thoughtfully articulating a diverse range of opinion, for at least four reasons. One, the communication is not immediate and there is time for reflection. Two, carefully writing things down helps clarify one’s own thinking. Three, through the editing and review process, confusing language can be massaged and ideas more clearly fleshed out. And four, we’re committed to it—and we hope to convince you to participate so that it can be done.

The paper’s mission—and, indeed, my mission, passion and vocation for more than 40 years—is to hold a facilitated space where people with diverse political and civic ideas can share them with each other. I believe that through that diversity of approach, we find effective solutions.

Community newspapers, especially this one, can hold that space very effectively, perhaps better than other venues.

So the final ask: Trust that the paper will adhere to our mission to publish community news, and to hold facilitated space for people with diverse values to discuss and explore important community issues.

Send us your letters, your thoughts, your op-eds. Let us know what, as a community, you want to talk about.

And why not start today?

Each month we throw out a prompt and ask you to weigh in on it: The sixth Monthly Conversation Experiment is about gratitude.  

So, in the way of an open-ended prompt consider: Where do you find gratitude? How do you find gratitude? For what are you grateful?

Send your 400-word maximum essays, reflections, or creative works to copyeditor@riverreporter.com by Friday, November 20.

I know we have a long road of bridge-building and holding and letting go of our disappointments and resentments. With that, what I am most grateful for is the possibility that we could have a do-over on how we talk and listen to each other.

We can do this.

Let’s have a do-over on how we talk and listen to each other.

Trust the process.

Trust the paper.

For  how to put this in practice, check out Laurie's writing in her blog:  Publisher's Log

community, newspaper, civil, conversation, dialogue

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