|
Editorial: Blow Your Horn |
|
|
|
by Dan Veaner
|
|
Wednesday, 01 February 2006 |
Every so often I use this space to blow our own horn. Sometimes I mention that in order to bring you the Lansing Star we need advertisers, and I ask you to consider advertising with us, either your business or a classified ad when you have something to sell, a service to offer, and so on. When I do that I mention our incredibly reasonable rates, and sometimes even mention our web services and products that you can learn about at our company's web site at http://www.lstarpublishing.com. Not to mention that we are swell people!
But I'm not going to do that in this editorial. Instead I am going to talk about you blowing your own horn. Did you know that we accept guest editorials? If you have something to say and can express it minimally eloquently you can submit a guest editorial to us. It can be on any topic that affects the Lansing community.
So far we have only had one guest editorial. Matthew Shulman, the publisher and editor of the now defunct but much loved Lansing Community News very generously wrote one for our first issue. In it he said, "Today's launch of the Lansing Star by Dan and Karen Veaner marks not only the return of this soulful approach to community journalism but also reflects the digital revolution in the way society communicates and many Lansing households seek information." Here at the Star we were thrilled (here's a link to his editorial).
I see many advantages to guest editorials. First of all, I don't think my opinion is that interesting. I'm always interested to hear what other people think. Even if I don't agree, other peoples' opinions are more interesting to me 93% of the time. (OK, some people are just boring, but fewer than you'd think!)
Second, The community benefits when its members share their opinions. At the recent Ad Hoc Committee that met to learn about the upcoming School District Capital project there was a diversity of opinion, for and against, that led to interesting exchanges of ideas, and perhaps some new ideas.
Third, if you write an editorial I don't have to. I do a lot of writing every week so I'd be thrilled to have one column less, so I can curl up with a novel, or pat a cat (or -- bliss -- both).
So if you have something to say, don't be shy. If you don't want to write a guest editorial, by all means send a Letter to the Editor. Either way your voice can be heard in Lansing and maybe even make a difference.
----
v2i5 |
Archive Opinions 
