Welcome to the my little corner of the paper

Welcome to the my little corner of the paper
the Mapleton PRESS Thursday, September 6, 2007

The PRESS is undergoing a bit of a makeover.

This column used to appear in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and the Schleswig Leader on page 3, right above the recipes and next to the Church schedules. As of today it has moved to the new opinion page of the PRESS.

One reason of course, is that the Leader and the NEWSpaper have been absorbed into their parent paper due to rising production costs and postal rates.

So what's the deal with an opinion section? Do we really need one of these in a small regional weekly paper like this? Are we trying to rock the boat or somethin' here?

Yes and no. Yes, I at least, personally think that an opinion section will be useful, and no, we're not just a bunch of rowdy muck-ruckers trying to rabble-rouse.

So what's all the hubbub, Bub?

This section of the PRESS will have a lot to offer.

There may be occasions when our publisher Brad Swenson or the President of Enterprise Publishing, Mark Rhoads, decide that there's an issue which they'd like to address with a full-fledged "editorial." Editorials represent the official position of the paper and don't have what are called "bylines." In other words, no single person takes credit for it because it is as if the newspaper itself is speaking.

I'd venture to bet that we'll continue to occasionally publish articles submitted by your elected officials like Clarence Hoffman, Steve King, and of course Senators Grassley and Harkin. These are called "guest columns" and it goes without saying that they represent the opinions of their authors, and not necessarily those of the PRESS, it's staff, publisher or owner.

The most exciting and perhaps the most important aspect of this part of the paper is that it is a forum where ideas are exchanged. YOUR ideas. As we've always done, we look forward to running your letters. They can be positive attempts to bring attention to praiseworthy people, projects, and organizations- or they can be concerned or critical pleas for action or change. They can address local, state, national or even global issues.

Who knows? Maybe we'll even seek out your opinions with survey questions or some kind of man-on-the-street interviews.

The Op/Ed page is my favorite part of the paper. Of course, I'm probably biased. I provide two more elements to this page; editorial cartoons and a regular humor/opinion column. I guess I must have started drawing cartoons as far back as 5th grade, but I hadn't really published any since college until about a year ago when I started putting them on top of my column. I double-majored in Art and History in college, so I guess it makes sense to draw political cartoons. Although I have plenty of friends who say that they get so disgusted by politics that they no longer follow the national news and thereby, they tell me that they "really don't get" many of my cartoons. I hope that whether you agree with them, disagree with them, or just don't get them, you'll still enjoy seeing funny pictures in your local paper.

This column started running in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper back in 2002 after a summer working at the PRESS for Mike and Barb Lyon. The column's motto has always been "Sex, Politics, and Religion- not necessarily in that order." The point being that we shouldn't be afraid to talk or debate about pretty much anything. I can't tell you how many people tell me that they "read my column every week, sometimes I even agree with you."

Chances are pretty good that you won't always agree with me. I just want to let you know ahead of time, that I don't intend to deliberately offend you or try to brain wash you some how. But I have no problem with pushing your buttons once in a while and getting you a little riled up The opinions in this column are mine alone, there's plenty of times when the publisher and even my wife disagree with me. My real goal is not to make you mad, but to make you think. Hopefully I'll make you chuckle once in a while too.

Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. 'Ted's Column' has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. You can see all of Ted's cartoons at http://tmal.multiply.com