A reflection of us

The picture of the small channel or gut running from behind our house to the White Oak River is a nearly perfect reflection. The White Oak River is a blackwater river. I am guessing that make the reflections less or a rarity, but that is only a guess. I know that I regularly capture deep reflective images here on the banks of the White Oak in coastal North Carolina.

I make no effort to hide the fact that I am addicted to local newspapers. I find them fascinating. I recently wrote about this love of newspapers in a post, "The morning newspaper."

Here on the coast of North Carolina newspapers seem very local. I was surprised to find out that you can't even get home delivery of the Raleigh News and Observer.

The newspapers that I read are all over the map in opinions. As I mentioned in my other article, one even regularly features Ann Coulter. Of course much of the news is local news, but I am surprised to find that I get more of national and international news without having to resort to a larger paper. Yet I still do not really have a handle on the three or four North Carolina newspapers that I regularly browse.

As a local newspaper goes, I always found the Roanoke Times to be a paper that seemed to have a very balanced approach on its opinion page. What I enjoyed even more was the active commentary for local people. There were many very articulate opinions pieces penned by people from the community.

Our local newspaper reflect the communities around them. Perhaps sometimes they get out of sync, but I that does not last long.

If each of the opinion sectors is a little unhappy with the local newspaper, then they are probably doing a pretty good job.

I have noticed that the Washington Post has started letting readers who are registered with their website post comments. The Santa Fe newspaper, the Free Newmexican started doing the same over a year ago. I think it is a great idea.

In these days of politics being too sensitive to discuss in polite company, maybe we can get back to reasonable discourse through written debates within our local newspapers.

That will certainly allow the newspapers to paint a more accurate picture of their communities.