This is our last issue of The Commons for 2010. Our staff will be taking next week off to catch our breaths after a busy seven months of transforming the paper from a monthly to a weekly. This week's paper also marks the end of our first full five years of publication.
It's been an exciting time here, and thanks to the support we have received from our readers, advertisers, and donors, we're moving ever closer to realizing the vision of the group of volunteers who struggled and gave birth to a publication that could belong to all of us.
The name of this newspaper “was inspired by the intrinsic nature of this venture, which is to establish a vehicle for our common cause, to give voice, across the broadest possible spectrum of interests and concerns, to all of the citizens of Brattleboro and our surrounding towns,” the paper editorialized in its second issue in 2005.
Those who founded the paper envisioned it “as the print equivalent of our own town common, a meeting place to exchange diverse views, a weekly gathering in which each of us can discuss the issues that affect our lives.”
Windham County is a great place to produce a newspaper. We have a lively and engaged readership, and so many intelligent and interesting people call this county home.
We strive to reflect the infinite variety of people that live and work here, and want nothing less than a weekly newspaper that embraces the whole of Windham County in all its feisty, complicated glory.
Telling your stories has been a pleasure, and it is what motivated us to create a weekly publication that can merit universal respect and create the common ground that was only an imaginative vision in the early days of this paper.
Does that mean we demand that you like what we do? No way. We want to hear from readers who feel we missed the mark. If you think we missed the mark on a news story or disagree with a piece on the Voices page, talk to us. Get in touch with us, and we'll have it out candidly. Your engagement will make The Commons a better newspaper for you, and for all of us.
Our door is open, and we want everyone's point of view in these pages. An example of this goal is our diverse and wholly unpredictable Voices section. Some of the pieces we run might elicit a nod of recognition. Others might cause a bout of heartburn or vigorous disagreement - even among those of us who edit the section.
That gamut of reactions is what we hope for. We trust that our readers can use their own intellectual equipment to weigh whether someone's letter or opinion piece is on point or full of nonsense. We hope that each week's mix of news and views will make you see things through fresh eyes and make you think anew, whatever your worldview.
Given the activist roots of The Commons - a prerequisite for affecting change of any sort, including a change in Windham County's media landscape - we see it as a sign of the paper's maturity that readers of all political ideologies are using the paper as a forum. We need to move beyond facile labels and treat one another and differing beliefs with respect. It's the way toward frank discussions about a community that is so fragile in so many ways.
So thank you for all the support you gave us in 2010. We'll see you when we return on Jan. 5.