Here We Go

This blog has been idle for a couple of months, but, with local elections upon us, it will become active again. We will be posting comments and news at least through the elections. I hope that you will post too. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to post on the discussions. If you have something that you feel is front page worthy please send it to us.

I would like to thank KAMU for giving me the opportunity to sit on their panel to question local candidates. My attention has always been on College Station issues. I do not live in Bryan and, to be honest, I always viewed Bryan politics a little like a bad accident on the highway. I just sort of turned my head to avoid seeing something unpleasant. In doing research on issues in Bryan to prepare for the forum, I did see the gore of small town good old boy politics; but I also saw lots of people, including good old boys, who care deeply about their city and their community.

You can’t live in our twin cities long before you start to form opinions on why these two communities are so very different. There are many reasons. One reason is that the people in College Station tend to be more aware of what is going on in city politics and to get involved. This has not always been the case for College Station. Recent awareness was motivated by concerns for neighborhood integrity and a sense of responsibility for the business of the city being conducted with civility and decency. It seems that those same concerns are surfacing in Bryan as well.

I suspect that there are few variables more directly correlated to the quality of life in a city than the level of citizen involvement. Above all else that is the goal of this blog: to motivate citizen involvement. While awareness of issues is an important ingredient, it is not enough in and of itself. Bryan and College Station are truly wonderful places to live and we have an amazing amount of untapped potential. That potential is best tapped by the citizens themselves.

As we lead up to the elections, we hope that we can generate some spirited discussion on this blog. There are not many rules but here they are. When requested, we will post any candidates comments on the front page, as long as they conform to our sense of common decency for a political forum. While political forums, in our opinion, are to common decency what skinny-dipping is to the world of fashion, we will block posts that make unfounded libelous claims or that deal with personal issues unrelated to the office being sought.

While those of us responsible for this blog have some definite opinions that we are happy to share, we do not wish to stifle the opinions of others, which is one reason for offering front-page access to all candidates. We will also pull material from the web and elsewhere to help present a broader spectrum of ideas than just our own. Please share information on other blogs and web pages that we may draw from. Anything posted here that is taken from somewhere else must have its source cited.