Welcome, again

This is my second attempt at writing a blog. My first attempt was thwarted by the folks at Gannett Corporate who said a newspaper wire editor could not have a public blog expressing commentary and opinion on national and international news events. The problem is that it may tend to invite criticism from the public that my political views are affecting how stories are selected for the newspaper.

Fair enough.

(BTW, surveys show that newspaper employees have a full range of political viewpoints, it's just that for professional and practical reasons reporters keep their views to themselves. But, I have not been a reporter for about 10 years now. I had hoped that since I was simply a copy editor that it would be OK to finally express my opinions. However, it was because I am occasionally a wire editor that my blog had been rejected. Perhaps if some day I was no longer working shifts as a wire editor, I might be able to write publicly.)

So, this is now a private blog. If you are reading this, you are probably a friend, a colleague or a family member who I have invited to join my discussion.

Since this will not go public, I plan to use this just as a way to sort out my thoughts before attempting to write the occasional opinion piece. I did get to write an opinion piece for the paper a couple of weeks ago on the writer's strike:

http://www.stargazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071116/OPINION03/711160301/1004/OPINION

That column was successful enough that I asked if I could write more opinion pieces for the newspaper. The answer was yes, so long as - again - what I wrote did not conflict with my wire editor duties. (Or even appear to conflict.)

So, I can publicly express opinion through the newspaper, but only because the editors at the paper will be able to turn down anything I write when they see ethical conflicts.

That's OK with me. It's better to express what I can, when I can, than write nothing at all.

As I quote Teddy Roosevelt in the header for this blog:
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

I've reposted my old blogs below.

Thanks for reading