In my opinion — and as the opinion pages editor for this entire millennium so far, I know a thing or two about opinions — donating to Growing Community Media would not only benefit us, it would also benefit you.
It benefits us, of course, by helping us grow “community media” (as our name implies). As our name also implies, it benefits you by keeping local media alive, which helps all of us “grow community.”
Community is an organic entity and, like a plant, requires tending and nurturing on a regular basis if it is to continue growing. In other words, investing and reinvesting our time, energy, effort and resources.
The gardening metaphor is familiar to me because it has guided my efforts in editing the Viewpoints section for the past 26 years. As gardeners, you don’t really “grow” the plants in your garden. You create the optimal conditions for that growth (and minimize the negative conditions). And the plants respond.
As editor of Viewpoints, the optimal conditions involve encouraging (and in some cases directly inviting) readers to share their opinions — and to keep them from getting discouraged by providing some guidance, the right amount of editing (not too much, not too little) and getting their opinions into print in a timely manner. I also try to minimize negative conditions by discouraging, and if necessary preventing, “misinformation” when it finds its way into opinions. It’s not an easy job, and I’ve tumbled off that tightwire more than once, but the end result is that, week to week, we publish more opinions, and devote more pages to those opinions, than (I’m almost certain) any other newspaper in the country.
I don’t get credit for that. You get credit for that. And you wouldn’t submit the high volume (and quality) of opinions if you didn’t feel it was worth your time and effort. And you wouldn’t feel it was worthwhile if you didn’t feel a sense of ownership, not only in this newspaper but also the communities we cover.
We devote so many pages to Viewpoints every single week because we want you to feel a sense of ownership in this newspaper. As editor, I have long felt — and never confessed till now — that Viewpoints is the most important part of our paper. It’s what elevates us beyond being a very good newspaper to being an indispensable part of these communities.
We don’t get credit for that, you do.
I’ll take it one step further: I used to think readers wrote in so often because our coverage gave them a reason to do so. Now I think our Viewpoints section gives us the motivation to do the best job possible covering the News. And there has never been a more important time in our 45-year history to cover what’s going on.
Oak Park and River Forest are the communities they have grown into because the residents here “own” those communities. And Growing Community Media has grown into the kind of newspapers it publishes because our readers, at a personal level, “own” the paper.
Viewpoints nurtured that sense of ownership for decades, so now that we have gone nonprofit, it’s only natural to ask our communities to take their commitment to the next level. It wouldn’t work if people didn’t care so much about where they live. Our newspapers, and your submitted opinions, are the proof of how much you care and how our towns and these newspapers are worth your continuing investment.
Right now, our communities are under assault by a vicious and unethical federal government that does not care about communities and is making concerted efforts to weaken them. Resisting the current administration’s destructive efforts is only possible if our community is deeply interwoven. Investing in these newspapers is a crucial step in sustaining our resistance to the forces whose goal is nothing less than undermining our democracy.
It takes a community to raise a child, and it takes a community to raise enough resources to sustain a newspaper that, in turn, helps sustain the strength of our community. It’s a benevolent cycle that will eventually triumph over the vicious cycle that seeks to undo the efforts of we, the people, to grow a stronger, more perfect union.
You know this is important to us, but we also know it is important to you.
Because you’ve told us so.
One letter to the editor at a time for so many decades.
Checks can be mailed to: Growing Community Media, PO Box 6670, River Forest IL 60305 or visit growingcommunitymedia.org/donate.
