Painting a canvas of community voices

View full sizeGeorge RedeWhen I stepped into the role of editing the Argus Opinion page early this year, it felt as if I’d been handed a set of paints and a blank canvas.

How could we best use the space to reflect the interests and concerns of a community defined by its agricultural history and dynamic growth? How could we assure regular readers of the Argus we would be mindful of the newspaper’s long record of community leadership and its right-of-center political perspective? How could we reach out to occasional readers and non-readers to bring them into the discussion?

These were among the questions I asked myself when I began at the Argus in late January. With respect for the past, a sense of urgency about the present and musings about the future, I grabbed my brushes and went to work.

Now, four months later, I’m writing my first signed column on this page to report back to you, readers, and solicit your feedback. This isn’t a report card, per se. Rather, it’s a restatement of what we set out to do, a summary of what we’ve done, and an invitation to engage with us — in print every Friday and anytime online.

Our goal is simple: to hold up a mirror to the greater Hillsboro community so that people from different neighborhoods, workplaces and walks of life see their issues and concerns reflected on this page. For some, those topics involve taxes, traffic and municipal services; parenting; politics; crime, health care, poverty, demographic change; education and school funding; jobs and economic development; land-use planning and quality-of-life issues.

Presenting a variety of viewpoints is central to that goal. That is why we have been proactive in soliciting guest opinions from regular citizens, along with elected officials and community leaders. That is why we created an Argus Community Writers program, currently featuring a retired teacher, a stay-at-home mom, and an information technology specialist, to assure a flow of grassroots perspectives. That is why we have continued to publish columns by longtime political commentator Jayne Carroll.

As promised, we have occasionally gone without a staff editorial in this space in order to devote more room to community voices. We did so most recently in early May, when we presented excerpts of more than two dozen commentaries on K-12 budget cuts and proposed solutions to Oregon’s school finance crisis.

We also have conducted online reader polls to get a sense of community opinion on several issues, including support for minor league baseball in Hillsboro; the elimination of Native American mascots at Oregon high schools; and what to do about the composting “stink” near North Plains. We have excerpted online interviews with Oregon’s First Lady, Cylvia Hayes, on poverty and hunger, and with Olympic soccer star Tiffeny Milbrett, a Hilhi graduate, on Title IX. And we have continued to publish letters to the editor, giving our critics room to sound off.

Knowing that space in the print newspaper is finite, we introduced the “On The Web” feature on this page to provide a distillation of guest opinions found on the Argus’ web pages. And, to better connect with readers in real time, we poured new energy into reviving the Argus’ Twitter feed and created an Argus Facebook page to make sharing of our editorial content as easy as possible.

Finally, I’ve ventured out four times in these four months to meet readers on their own turf. These “Fourth Friday” events have taken me to local coffee shops whose customers and overall vibes are as diverse as you might imagine: the Starbucks at the Civic Center Plaza, Insomnia Coffee Co., Maggie’s Buns in Forest Grove, the Hillsboro Pharmacy Soda Fountain. Obviously, these are but a handful of the micro-communities that make up the greater Hillsboro area.

Yet, it’s been helpful to chat face-to-face with local officials, business owners, government workers, educators and retirees, especially those who’ve spent much of their life here. Aside from the opportunity to hear directly from area residents, I planted the seeds for at least two guest opinions that later appeared in the Argus.

As I look back at the 18 weekly issues published since late January, I see 18 canvases that I hope signal our commitment to community engagement. Are there areas where we could be doing more or doing better? Certainly. Are there topics we haven’t yet addressed? Probably so. In either case, that’s your cue to talk back to us. Write a letter to the editor. Submit a guest opinion, or steer us to a colleague. Send me an email or a tweet.

Each week presents a fresh canvas. With your help, we’d like to get paintbrushes in the hands of more people who have something timely and important to contribute to the community conversation.

— George Rede, Argus Opinion editor
grede@hillsboroargus.com; @georgerede