Friday, December 15, 2006

Stormy Weather

This is how I felt on our abbreviated walk this morning - the winds from last night's storm had not yet abated. The same feeling comes from the hot air exchanged on the local blogs over the county e-mail scandal. I, for one, am sufficiently winded for now.

I got to thinking about how bloggers in a blogging community such as ours can have an impact. Hopefully positive. We have a structure that makes it work. The individual bloggers, such as myself. The hub; the Spokesman Review's Huckleberries online, and the lurkers and blurkers who make that site work. And the Inland Northwest Bloggers' Association, a site dedicated to promoting local blogs and a meeting place of sorts for those of us who do actually have individual blogs.

We are all intertwined with one another. When an issue of importance comes to the fore everyone jumps in - all sides, pro and con, are discussed and challenged. The result is an increased awareness of how others in the community think far beyond the scope and more timely than a "letters to the editor" format.

I would guess that one day in the not too distant future an occasion will arise where the blogging community becomes instrumental in an action. Be it a petition campaign for a cause or an ouster from office or just what has yet to be determined. But it is becoming more and more apparent to me that we as a community within our community are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Watchdogs of sorts. Loud ones. Like Bacchus. And growing in size - just like Bacchus. Ha. This from the Dogwalker.

And so I end my week. I'm heading for our new massage pad, an early Christmas present to ourselves to help alleviate the aches that linger from the car crash! Have a great weekend.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.

1 comment:

Bill McCrory said...

Mari,

Bloggers have already been instrumental in changes, though our contributions are often unseen by the public and unacknowledged by the users. We have provided insight, links to obscure but relevant bits of information, and community conscience that have influenced journalists and policymakers to look more closely at what they do and how well (or how poorly) they do it. We'll never win Peabody's or Pulitzer's, but if public recognition were our objective, we'd have become local elected officials and not bloggers. Color and perspective from bloggers can add to the form and substance of journalists and investigators.