Saturday, August 2, 2008
Arts and Culture in the Village - There’s More than One Way to Get Involved
Last Monday night the Village Council had a debate (or rather, I debated the Village Council) on the merits of expanding the membership of the recently created Dexter Village Arts and Culture Committee and the requirements for membership. You can read about the changes to the committee and people appointed here (three pages from the last Council packet).
The Ann Arbor News ran an article written by our local reporter, Lisa Allmendinger, regarding the discussion. As is the case with all the articles the AA News runs, it was also posted online. Now, the cool thing about having articles online is there can be discussion regarding those articles and the topics they discuss. Usually there are not many comments on stories, but apparently this article caught the eye of a couple of people. I was doing my usual tooling around the ‘Net, looking for things about the Village, and I saw the article and two comments by local online readers, “alangoldsmit” and “bruceae.” I could not help myself - I had to respond. (I know, “AMAZING! Joe couldn’t leave this alone?” Go figure.)
I have spoken to friends and Council members about writing to the editor of the local paper. I have a good friend that likes to say, “Writing a letter to the editor is like peeing on your leg. It gives you a warm feeling but it really doesn’t accomplish much and you end up all wet.” I am not sure I agree 100%, but in any case this was a different situation. A couple of readers voiced an opinion and I tried to give them more information about the discussion. What is really great is that this article prompted people to voice an opinion and get a little more active. I think that is great and it is an important part of the role our press plays in our government. It is nice to get an opportunity to interact at some level with some of the people in the community. So often, the Council makes decisions without much input. Here’s hoping more people can find a way to get involved, at any level, and provide more input. I encourage you to read the article and patronize the Ann Arbor News. (and the Dexter Leader - they post articles online, too!)
