Happy Black Friday. Our son the pilot (as opposed to our other
son the artist) informs me that Black Friday is called Black Friday
because it is the one day in the year when most retail stores go
from being in the red to being in the black, from owing money to
making money.
Happy Black Friday. Our son the pilot (as opposed to our other son the artist) informs me that Black Friday is called Black Friday because it is the one day in the year when most retail stores go from being in the red to being in the black, from owing money to making money.
I had always vaguely imagined that it was called Black Friday because it is the most crowded shopping day of the year. I hate shopping even at the best of times. Our kids, on the other hand, enjoy shopping and crowds, the more frenetic the better. They may well be adding to the throng of customers here in Gilroy because all three of our kids plus two girlfriends have come home for Thanksgiving.
Their visit makes it easy to give thanks this week. I have had a lot of practice rejoicing in all circumstances since Election Day, so switching to giving thanks in all circumstances is easy.
I particularly rejoice that now that the elections are over, I do not have to read the major media. Given my druthers, I would never read or watch or listen to the major media. I only do so because my job and my duty as an informed voter require it.
To be sure, it is impossible to avoid the mainstream media entirely. Even if the only radio one listens to is KSFO, the top of the hour gives five minutes of selected top stories and commentary from what the right calls the drive-by leftist media. (Curiously, the far left calls that same five minutes the right wing corporate media. Most people just call it, uncritically, the news.)
And even if the election is over and I can ignore national news with a clear conscience, my job as a columnist requires that I pay attention to the local news and opinion. I notice that columnist Lisa Pampuch, along with the rest of the drive-by media, is trying to pin the current economic downturn on the Bush administration. Ms. Pampuch claims to be a constitutionalist and a news junky, but apparently forgets that Congress, not the president, is in charge of spending, and Congress has been Democratic for the last two years. Moreover, our economic woes have been in the making for decades, and Democrats have controlled Congress for all but 12 of the past 75 years.
One aid I discovered just last week in the online version of the Dispatch at www.gilroydispatch.com. Readers post their views of the news and opinion pieces.
Many of these posts are badly spelled, ungrammatical, and rude, but they are fresh, original, and unfiltered. Some postings demand that the Dispatch remove other postings that they deem offensive. The Dispatch says it will remove only posts that are truly egregious, and allows readers to flag posts for its review.
Operating a public forum is a tremendous responsibility. On the one hand, the Dispatch, being part of the free press, abhors censorship. On the other hand, as a valued part of the community, the Dispatch would not want to participate in incitement to riot or promotion of crime. It’s a thin line, and I do not envy the people that make those decisions. I would probably allow everything that does not openly advocate felonies.
Some of the commentary fills in information not previously available in the print Dispatch. For example: in a print letter to the editor published Nov. 21st, Amorette Mendoza complained that her niece was denied lunch at Eliot School because her parents owed $10 in overdue lunch charges.
Online columnist Ben Anderson responded to the charges, including the information that reduced fee lunches cost a pittance of 40 cents. Various parents and school personnel weighed in on one side or another, with the most valuable piece of information being that no school child in Gilroy is denied lunch no matter how far in arrears; she is always allowed milk and salad bar.
This little tiny story illustrates the great strength of the new media. No columnist, no journalist, no human being will ever have all the relevant facts nor the time to gather them. But when everyone chimes in from their areas of expertise, the truth emerges.
