Editor’s Note
Back in the old days — that’s less than a decade and before there were such things as blogs and interactive conversations with readers — editors used to respond to their newspaper readers with an “editor’s note.” Sometimes it clarified a point made in a letter to the editor. Sometimes it offered a correction. Sometimes it was just a simple explanation. An editor’s note was a handful of sentences; maybe a four or five paragraphs. It was always a personal link between the editor and the reader. Only difference between it and today’s blog is the immediacy and the platform. Welcome to Editor’s Note.

Archive for January 16th, 2009

Saying “yes” to the “no” column last week

Add comment January 16th, 2009

Twenty to one. That’s how the e-mails ran this week from readers of last Sunday’s column, which said “no” to wage increases for public employees, elected and appointed governmental officials, and which warned of more cuts to come. Twenty attagirls; one firing of me.

                Add the comments on my blog post and I get fired at least twice, But the message is crystal clear: Private sector workers, from the board rooms to the furnace rooms, are telling their public sector cohorts to get with the program. “We’re not getting raises; our benefits are being cut. You’re going to have to share in this, too.”

                Interestingly and importantly, those who said “right on” did so with compassion and concern. These were not private sector workers angry with their public sector partners. Instead, they expressed, for the most part, appreciation for the work they do and for the fact that “no” would be hard to swallow after so many years of “yes.” My responders certainly were not people poking their pitchforks into public employees.

                One of the smartest and most on-point was from public sector employee who e-mailed me from work. (Since I didn’t ask her if I could use her name, I won’t. The message is what is most important) “… I am at my office right now – Sunday morning – and for the rest of the day, because there is more work than a regular work week can hold. At the same time I am grateful that I have my job and that I can do this. My husband and I were planning for retirement in the next couple of years and realize that we will probably have to postpone this but we still have work and more sense of security than many of our fellow Rockfordians. We are clear that everyone needs to “get real” at this point. Bravo to you!”

                We are in this together, public and private. We will be a stronger, more cohesive and compassionate community at the other side. Ten years from now we will either celebrate the ways in which we came together, or we will be writing the tragedies of a community that allowed its public sector to prosper at the expense of the private sector. I’ve lived in the Rock River Valley for almost 20 years. The community I know will choose today to do the right thing.

                It is time, as my note writer said, to “get real.”

 

                Many responders said we needed to report more and I agree. To that end, we launch officially three new beats Monday morning: the economy; public-private partnerships and power; and jobs. These are hard news, “watch dog” beats staffed by three experienced journalists who know the region exceptionally well. Alex Gary and Isaac Guerrero, both born-and-raised in the Rock River Valley, and Sean Driscoll, another Midwest transplant, will report to BusinessRockford.com editor Annette LaCross.

                I’ll post more on each beat on my “Editor’s Note” blog at rrstar.com. But, the headline in this: Times have changed and the power to get things done is held, not so much by the elected public officials, but by the men and women who control the local economy and how government spends money. Today, it is more about the economic development partnerships and a lot less about the city councils and county boards