A Bias for Being Local

Dear Reader,

Most of us believe that buying stuff locally is a good

thing. We can spend our money at

a Mom and Pop store, or a big box

store in our area, or even frequent

the Farmers market on weekends.

Every dollar that is given in these

transactions remains in the community.

And, the monies that stay

in our cities, villages, towns and

townships help pay taxes for better

roads, better sidewalks, better parks, better everything.

Spending currency outside our community, like for

online goods is okay for scoring that obscure item not

easily obtainable in-store and can be convenient, but

rarely does any of that legal tender find its way back

here. It just goes somewhere else and is theoretically

used in making their communities stronger and not

ours.

Our stewardship is to focus on all things hyper-local

such as exhorting folks to buy local and even caring

from a media awareness and sensitivity perspective for

those on the lowest rungs of the ladder, the homeless.

Also importantly, an essential part of our mission is

disseminating the news for and about the lives of the

people and events in our community.

If we don’t report on what has transpired at city council

meetings, who will. If we don’t report on the decisions

made at school board meetings, who will. If we

don’t report on high school sports and other key occasions

in this area, who will. In sum, if we don’t intelligently

and comprehensively cover the local news in this

area, who will?

The reality is that we all need to pull together and collectively

support our communities by thinking and buying

local. In the long run, our tiny corner of the world

through this type of biased behavior will always be a

good place to dwell and to prosper.

Patrick Wood

Publisher