“The words of a President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately.” – Calvin Coolidge
“Salient advice that several recent Presidents should have taken to heart.” – Kevin Berger’s commentary
Tag:Random Thoughts
Does Anyone Read Your Blog?
TL;DR – I know of a few people that “follow” me, but for the most part, I’m talking to myself. 😁
I get this question off and on by people. I don’t really know the answer. I’ve never installed a counter and SPAM is rampant in the comments. I have some Lurkers that have made themselves know IRL a few times, but that’s rare. Occasionally people mention this blog, but I don’t particularly think I have a following. This is my response to this question when it came last week:
The Blog serves a few purposes for me…
- It gives me a semi-public place to organize my thoughts when I have opinions on things. It usually keeps me from saying something I regret or saying something without having back-up for it. A lot of times that’s as far as it goes. I did the post with the multiple Main/Davis intersection options before bringing it up at the Plan Commission, to make sure I’d given it sufficient thought. For example, it wasn’t until I’d drawn out a couple ideas that I took the next mental step to consider the other utilities that are in the current ROW, which means those areas would have to remain ROW.
- Occasionally, a blog post becomes a payroll stuffer if the topic is appropriate.
- Occasionally it gives me a time-stamped document to point to when someone tries to appropriate an idea I’ve put forward. (A few individuals come to mind…)
- It gives me a place to post things that do double duty as advertising a project and providing an easy place to point people with questions. I’m doing a lot of that with Twitter and Instagram for the Riverside Commons project. When the bank asks about status, I can point them to the ECC instagram or a recent blog post on this.
- It’s a trick to keep my website current. Since the blog posts appear as updates on the front page, it appears that my page is constantly being updated, despite the fact that the website is pretty stagnant. I just don’t have the time to do that justice and struggle to justify the expense of paying someone to do it. I paid someone to do the Sand Hill Farm website and it’s slow, hard for me to edit and overall clunkier than the ECC site which has been up forever. Currently it’s even lost it’s home page and I haven’t had time to research a fix. There’s a blog there too which I try and speak from with a different voice, i.e. less personal stuff.
- When someone chooses ECC they are really buying me. If they are interested, the blog shows them some of my community involvement, some of my politics and some of my sense of humor. From my blog, people have met my grandfather, know my disdain for Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” and DST, and friends that have passed like Mary Ellen, Pete, Bobbie and Richard. They’ve even gotten to see some personal art.
- It gives me a place to write. Facebook is too sappy and promoted for some of what I just need to get off my chest. I don’t necessarily want a big following or someone sending me hearts. Though occasionally I cut & paste a blog entry there if I think it’s appropriate. The blog is much easier to correct and I like being able to include pictures and links within the text.
Suburban Sprawl in Culver?
Wikipedia defines Suburban Sprawl thus: “Urban sprawl or suburban sprawl describes the expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density, monofunctional and usually car-dependent communities, in a process called suburbanization.” While Culver isn’t exactly racing down the road to strip malls, it’s worth looking at the changes occuring in recent and proposed developments in Culver.
Culver’s early development was very traditional. Despite dealing with the curvature of Lake Maxinkuckee, a traditional grid system was used for both the commercial and residential areas with the section of Lake Shore Drive along the Park being one of the few deviations with some curvature to reflect the lake shore. Since that time, the newer subdivisions have not followed the grid. The Riggings, Maple Ridge and Edgewood Estates are all dead end or loop streets with no plans to tie into the grid. It’s a little cheesy, but Adam Conover of “Adam Explains Everything” does a quick run down of some of the issues here:
Thoughts provoked by Penn Jillette
I received a copy of this article (right) from USA Today from a friend. Didn’t realize that we were both kindred spirits and fans of Penn Jillette before this. Back in the ’90s I actually subscribed to PC/Computing Magazine mainly for his one page op-ed on the last page.
Reading this article, I find it is amazing that colleges once know for opening young minds have become some of the most closed minded places in our nation. Freedom of Speech is more and more limited to freedom to parrot the current group-think. Heaven forbid anyone’s safe space is challenged. Obviously this isn’t just a college phenomenon, but it’s disappointing to see the degree to which it occurs there.
I often ponder how much this is due to the prevalence of the Internet. I have to admit I’m one of the people that would be lost without it, so I’m not advocating against it. (Of course I’m not! Here I am pontificating on it to a select few that would never read what I write without it!) But… when it has become so easy to find “news” that just agrees with your existing view, it means you are never challenged by other ideas. It’s too easy to find the source you like and just nod along.
I am rarely home in time to watch the evening news, so my main source of news is the Sunday morning recaps. I generally watch Fox News Sunday, then CBS Face the Nation, then NBC Meet the Press and finally PBS’s Washington Week. (Occasionally while on the treadmill, but sometimes that gets my heartrate up too much!) That generally gives me a reasonable smattering of viewpoints from Liberal to Conservative including a few in the middle. Sometimes I hear something infuriating, but then that’s why I watch and attempt to see that viewpoint. I don’t agree with either side all of the time. There are two many gray areas… Something that is ignored in our current political climate of Hard Right and Hard Left pandering to their respective bases and ignoring most of us in the middle.
Mr. Jillette says that Lenny Bruce was shocking in the 60’s and would be shocking to most college students in 2017. A jolt to the system can be a good thing. And this is a play… named “Buyer Beware”… so attendance wouldn’t have been required… and there was forewarning in the title… It’s unfortunate that the group decided that not only would they not attend, but that the option to attend should be removed. Maybe some of their peers were open to being shocked… Maybe it would have been good for them.
Funerals, Flags and Football
Last week was a rough week. Two funerals for a parent of two different good friends. Those obligations just added to what was an already stressful week. Fortunately neither were unexpected. Both of of the passing parents were in their 90’s. It’s never good, though.
The second funeral was for a Navy veteran and he received military honors at his funeral. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this done. Both my grandfather’s and my mother-in-law’s 3rd husband’s funerals included military honors. It is always a moving and touching display.
The respect for the Flag that the seamen displayed was particularly noteworthy considering the current controversy. I wonder how many of the football players using the National Anthem and Flag presentations as a time to protest have seen this? Would it affect their choices?
I don’t dispute that they have the right to protest. That’s one of the things our Flag represents. Veterans often would be there first to affirm that, though often with a look of despair as they also recognize the disrespect. The Flag represents so much more to so many people. To many, the Flag is sacred. Would the players have better served their cause by choosing another form of protest? it would appear so… My favorite unsourced quote about Free Speech is, “While it is true that you have the right to free speech, you do not have the right to be heard.” To the NFL’s chagrin, some fans are now former fans because of the protests. They’ve chosen not to listen. Probably not what was intended.
I wasn’t an NFL fan before the protests started, but this has brought them onto my radar… and not in a favorable light. Without commentary on their goals, I wish they would have chosen another form of protest. Another comment I heard recently resonates. “If we don’t teach our youth respect for our Country, will they feel bound to protect it if necessary?” There was a news story about a Pee-wee football team that chose to kneel during the national anthem because that’s what their “heros” are doing. We reap what we sow… and sometimes we regret it.
Image borrowed from a Daily Mail article on Beau Biden’s funeral.
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MacKenzie Ledley - Executive Director, Pulaski County Public Library