I’ve been writing, happily, from Whitewater for years. Writing like this has, to my mind, two aspects: as commentary and as chronicle. Blogging as commentary is obvious, of course. Blogging as chronicle, however is just as important, if not more so. One writes sometimes to advocate, but always to describe.
Longtime readers know that I have a limited opinion of ‘opinion-making.’ See, The Impossibility of ‘Opinion-Making.’ Because I believe that the overwhelming number of people in this community are sharp and capable, it’s certain to me that they form their own opinions, on politics, public policy, and practical matters. People aren’t easily impressionable, and form their own judgments routinely and soundly.
(This is one of the reasons that many public relations & marketing efforts seem to me both futile and – all to often – laughably futile. Whitewater is simply lousy with bottom-shelf officials who think that marketing, public relations, and boosterism are, in fact, the sine qua non of public policy. They aren’t; they’re the sine qua non of public policy for bottom shelf-officials.)
Writing these last several years, and far more to come, represent chronicle as much as commentary, describing as they have and will the events, variously good or bad, and actions variously sound or unsound, within our city.