I don’t know how many of you imagine seeing your words, your thoughts, or even an image of yourself in the newspaper, but there are days when I find that prospect daunting.
Take this week for example. If I ramble on about the beauties of waiting
for TrickerTreaters at my door, will that enflame the Anti-Halloweeners? If I remind readers that 4 months ago,
Lindsay City Finance Director Tamara Laken promised to retire in August of this
year and that, chances are, her re-announced retirement come January (reported
in last week’s edition) is yet another step in a plan preconceived by the
Insiders last spring to merge the city manager and finance director positions,
will you throw up your hands in disgust, thinking all I ever do is complain?
For eight years now I have tried to
use this column (and its predecessor, “HomePages”) to present pieces of the
truth about our lives in this region that were not readily available
elsewhere. Finding words for these
pieces has been a challenge and a gift.
Every time I think otherwise, someone will stop me in line at RN Market
or in the aisles of Rite Aid and say “I read your piece in the paper last
week.” Sometimes people even thank
me. I have never been accosted, not even
in True Value Hardware.
Because I don’t just report facts
but also evaluate them and the meaning they might have for our community and
our region, my writing falls under the category of “editorial,” or
“opinion.” I am grateful to have a place
in that category, hopefully one that helps enlarge the truth in the facts found
elsewhere on these pages.
It’s true that some opinion finds
its way into the news reporting of this paper where it might not belong. But this is a small town newspaper serving
many small towns, and praise is just danged hard to come by anywhere else. Hopefully we know each other well enough to
know when someone’s glamorizing the facts with their own point of view, and
take it with a grain of salt. That’s
what life here’s all about.
The question I have for you, dear
readers, is this: What are we to do with
the truth when we think we’ve read it? I
face this question constantly when I read others’ words on the printed page,
whether those be Katha Pollitt’s in The
Nation or Jim Hightower’s LowDown. Would it be a good idea to witness the
monthly County Board of Supervisors’ meetings or attend the Planning Commission
hearings, become an alternate for TCAG?
Respond to the Tulare County Citizens for Responsible Growth many email
alerts? Write letters to the editors?
I think everybody’s got to find their own answer to that question. My only hope in writing the truth as best I
possibly can is that the truth be read and understood as best it possibly can. From there, the truth becomes community
property and community responsibility.
My job is done, and our job begins.
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Trudy
Wischemann is a rural advocate who writes.
You can send her your truths c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or
leave a comment below.
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