There are certain things that get my attention, I don’t know how many of you recognize the same thing, probably none would be my guess. When writing opinions for this audience I am acutely aware of which subjects trigger your interests the most. Politics rank at the top or near the top. Local issues more than state or national, and that is because we live locally… this is where we are therefore we are more cognizant of our surroundings and those things that effect us in our own environment.
Opinions on these matters are a healthy way to express our selves, new ideas and thoughts are the innovations that give birth to new and more efficient ways to get things done.
We show more interest in our local government and are more opinionated than on the state level. Any mention of local officials usually brings out vigorous exchanges of both pro and con relating to job performance……..yet the anomaly in all this is the glaring fact that 80% of you do not vote. Go figure, you all run off at the mouth, spew vile comments, insults, and envy that belie your real intent. You think because you said it from behind the screen of anonymity that it should be taken seriously…..go to the Globe and see just how that works. No name and address and phone number, no comment. The letter to the editor section of the Globe never seems to be crowded, and most offerings are about church dinners and coming events taking place in the park.
This site has done more to make this community come to terms with the truth than the local paper has in the last forty years. I limit it to forty years because before that time there were other people sitting behind those desks that were not in bed with city officials; they did not make excuses for bad government.
Do not be fearful of voicing your opinions under your real name, do not be ashamed of your real thoughts and ideas; this is America, there is no other place on earth like this country. Here you can speak freely without fear, but when you do….make sure it is the truth…..
Peter Children
Wow where to even start with silly me’s line of bs today. There must of been a complete memory laps about the years of attacks on Marsters, Nelson and Weaver which even continued after they left office. I don’t know what your glass is half full of but you might try switching to water to get a clearer picture of what is going on. The status quo has always been known for a lack of covering all the story and has sunk to new lows when protecting their golden child. Positive or negative it’s called news.
A lot of talk about personal attacks on this site but no mention of the globe and bookmeyer taking cheap shots at past council members months after they have been out of office. Its pretty hard to ignore when it is delivered to your door. Respect needs to be earned and they have failed miserably. Bookmeyer lost my respect when one of his first acts was to attempt to remove the public forum. To me that said there is only a certain group I want to listen to.
A large group of citizens that have never had a voice finally have one thanks to NIT. Sometimes I think its got so bias with the status quo that if our mayor got caught urinating in central park they would try to claim its part of his plan to save the taxpayers money by lowering the grounds watering bill.
I think NIT is a good voice for everyone BUT do it in a civil manner.Contrary to what Peter thinks,I really don’t think Bookmeyer is the second coming of Satin.He might not act or do what Peter wants but I think he is a good person.If you do not like him don’t vote for him in the next election but DON’T attack him personally. And NO I am NOT a A-Teamer, I am a Mason City-Teamer.
Matt is a good person and I am sure was aware of the stink that would start when he challenged the status quo of the globe and this mayor. Great job.
I don’t leave many blogs here but I read them all. Very entertaining. There are some attacks here and there but nothing like I read elsewhere. Check out the mugshots facebook page if you want to see a 10 on the scale of 1 to 10 for attacks. I’d give this site a 4. on that scale. I don’t see any swear words at all here.
Peter: While I agree this site COULD be great, it never will as long as Matt allows personal attacks on other bloggers.On other web sites that I blog on they ban bloggers who engage in these attacks.This site gives me more local news in one day than the Globe gives me in one month BUT the attacks get old. If ALL bloggers ,including you and Matt ,would quit calling each other names maybe people ,including myself ,would use their real names.Right now anyone would be crazy to do it, just look at what happened to the Dodge blog!!!!!!!!!!!
Matt Marquardt is both generous and liberal when it relates to opossing opinions. He cannot police every blogg, that would be full time, he must therefore rely on a degree of personal decorum which we know is absent from certain people. Respect begets respect. You reap what you sow.
Matt is generous yes, I mean to allow posts from illiterates that can’t spell. you know like opossing, and what the hell is blogg,serbian??
Peter:He CAN police every blog.I know he reads every blog because he responds to a lot of them.I have NO problem with opinions BUT I do have a problem with name calling and personal attacks.You say “respect begets respect” but on this site respect begets attacks.Now I do agree with “you reap what you sow” because you and Matt are some of the worst offenders in the name calling game and because of that you give everyone else the green light to do the same!!!!!!