Category: other blogs (Page 6 of 7)

Reacting to a quote from a rural resident saying they define their area by there being “less government” and “more family,” Jon goes (just have to quote the whole thing):

Until, you know, there’s a natural disaster or other calamity. Then they come running for a government handout, leaving the kids home alone to keep the varmints out of the double-wide, unless their blood is so full of Curs Lite they can’t see to drive.

But usually the prospect of pork rinds will get them to focus just long enough to make it to the Wal-Mart, where they wander around the aisles in their NASCAR shirts, looking for 8-track tapes while their children run around the entire place screaming. The kids can’t find what they are looking for either because school funding got slashed again and they seem to have a wee bit of trouble um, reading.

The road to Amboy is maintained by magical forest sprites, who patrol it and keep the pure and noble woodsman safe from highwaymen, trolls, ogres and bandits. No need for pesky road crews and deputies there! Like Daniel Boone, all the resident of Amboy needs is a Kentucky long rifle and some pemmican.

Now, that is a rant.

I too, like Jon, get tired sometimes of the rural self definition of them some how being rugged individualists while us city-folk cower at the site of (oh, I don’t know) anything rurualish.

That said, there really is less government in the hinterland, because of the simple fact there are fewer people. This doesn’t mean that rural people somehow have more control over their own lives (which I assume is implied), but that where there are fewer people, there are fewer government services.

The police roll by my house more often than in rural areas simply because I have more neighbors in one block than a rural resident does in ten miles.

I live closer to a library (a much larger library) and I can walk to the store (most of the way) without feeling like a truck is going to come over the next rise and send me jumping into a ditch.

Depending more on your family doesn’t make it any more safer to go walking down a rural road at dusk. Having sidewalks does.

The kind of government that I have more of in Olympia is not the kind of government that people from the corner of two country roads are afraid of. Rather, its the kind that makes me want to live in an urban area. But, we each have our tastes, so there is no accounting for that.

But, if I lived out in the sticks, I’d like a bit more government, thank you.

Explaining why they late a lame story hit the press:

WIP doesn’t publish material to its website throughout the month — although sometimes we do correct mistakes that went out in the print issue. Typically, the website reflects what we run in print that month. Other people may have an interest in making WIP more of an online publication, but personally, I think it would probably turn into a situation where the staff spent all their free time fending off attacks from the SondraK’s of the world. Not my cup of tea.

That people disagree with other people is… well obvious.

Also obvious is that just putting up stories more than once a month to reflect what is in the print edition, doesn’t mean you have to accept comments. You just have to post every time you have something new.

But, even if you did accept comments, you could have a standard of behavior to keep away the trolls. In the end, the people that disagreed with you would just be the ones that did it nicely.

Would that be ok?

I’m just thinking that its good to break down walls and have conversations. Maybe the folks that read WIP need to talk to the folks over at SonkraK. Both are just about as close as you can get to the chorus singing to the chorus in Olympia, and that doesn’t exactly encourage critical thinking.

Jerry Large:

The Orting News had attracted more than 14,000 subscribers by its third week. Subscribers get an e-mail of its headlines, which reminds them to look at the site and the ads it carries. Subscribers don’t pay, but advertisers do.

The biggest story so far was an attempted abduction. Two strangers offered a fourth-grader candy to get into their car, but she didn’t do it.

Without the News, Carr says, the local school would have had no way to get word to the community quickly.

The problem with Large’s analysis of the Orting News is that it “isn’t journalism” and that a similar model, built on trust between neighbors, wouldn’t work in a big city setting.

Isn’t journalism? Apparently, only a group of poorly paid professionals can do journalism. If citizens try to ask the same questions that journalists would ask, they aren’t journalists, but journalers. Large should worry less about professionalism and more about being earnest. Unpros can do journalism, its just harder to conceive that they would.

Also, a set-up like the Orting News would very much work in a big city setting, it would need to be boiled down to a neighborhood level. And, the email back type accountability at the Orting News would actually help build the small town type connections that the Orting News is thriving on.