By David Fortier
Come Sunday morning, people across the country will stop for a moment of silence in remembrance of the horror that was 9/11. I recall that day, I was teaching a journalism class at St. Joseph College as the attacks were under way. Reports were coming in, sporadically, and I had to be in class. I grabbed a 13-inch television set and lugged it into the car and then into class, and we watched as events unfolded.
As the day unwound, more reports, more intimate ones, of people from Bristol who had family and friends in the City circulated. We had friends there. We left phone messages and waited quietly for news, any sort of news, and we prayed and hoped for the best. Here we are years later, 21 years later, and the memories are still fresh.
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And then there is the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
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Closer to home, things are more prosaic. Around the corner, The Watch and Clock Museum is repaving its driveway. Note: Later this month, the museum will holding is annual Wine, Women and Watches fundraiser.
Across the street, a new cafe has opened, Expresso Cafe. The cafe occupies the former location of Parkside Cafe, and includes among its offerings breakfast, lunch and coffee. The Expresso Cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
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And on to Sunday, parishes in the area will be celebrating. Right in our back yard, St. Joseph Paris will be holding a parish picnic on the church grounds and the green. Over at St. Stanislaus Church, the annual “Dozynki” event will be winding down by 7 p.m.
Earlier in the week, on the city governance level a public hearing was held regarding the logistics of the sale of recreational marijuana. Almost 100 people showed up to add their voices to the conversation.
By the time the hearing the ended, the proposal, which discussed issues such as whether Bristol would have one or two retail facilities, how they would operate, and where their businesses could be located, had devolved into a trial for and against the merits of sale of recreational marijuana at all.
Remember, the state legislature has legalized the sale and now cities across the state are figuring out how to manage the sales.
Immediately after the hearing, the committee jettisoned the original proposal, coming up with a new one that rejected the sale of recreational marijuana in Bristol entirely. The new proposal will come before the public for a hearing on this coming Thursday, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Bristol Public Library.
For a list of city meetings, check back on Monday, when TBE will publish a list—another new feature.
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TBE will have finally confirmed we are an official 501(c)(3), that is nonprofit for which anyone who qualifies can use their donation as a tax deduction. There are other benefits to being a nonprofit, but I won’t bother anyone with details.
The most important thing about qualifying is that in operating as a nonprofit, our online newspaper is, in one sense or another, part of a public trust: The public thinks enough of our mission, to cover local news well and thoroughly, that they trust us; conversely, we think enough of the public to work hard to earn the respect for which we have been entrusted.
It will take time to get to where we would like to be with our city reporting, but we have made progress—every week, it appears, we are adding to our content. Since we are run by volunteers (not our goal, as a viable business, we aim to hire reporters and photographers who dedicate themselves to local reporting), we are doing better than might be expected.
Please remember, with every new contributing member, we position ourselves to get to this goal more quickly. In other words, the more people who value what we do and show it through their monthly contributions, the more time and effort we can put into gathering news—and there is so much of it waiting to be reported.
And yes, we need to work through the complexities of doing journalism in a small city. One example has, of course, to do with the fact that my wife is running as a Democrat for the state house in the 79th district. It is tough, at times, navigating this territory; but it is more difficult because the perception is that TBE will be biased in her favor, or even in the favor of the Democrats.
I understand. I get it. At the same time, we are not a one-person operation. We do check and balance each other. We are hoping, over time, that some preconceptions will dissolve after our contributors become aware of our professionalism and resolve to do the best by and for them. I suppose, we are in the throes of educating each other about what it means to have a new type of news publication in our midst.
So we continue with our local news experiment, taking the next step to establish our viability among readers—and our contributors continue to sign up to help us along this path—with increasing content and having received designation as a tax-exempt business.
Speaking of new content, how are you enjoying our “Good morning, Bristol” feature? We will be adding more content in the weeks to come.
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Reading and listening this week was fairly limited, but I did get a chance to check out one new podcast and read an article in this week’s New Yorker about American democracy, its roots and what some people consider to be its future.
And for those following the latest developments with the former president, there is a new On the Media podcast discussing the U.S. presidency and treatment of former presidents who might have been tried for criminal activities.
The new podcast is called “The Essay,” and it is one of many offerings from the BBC. It can be found here, and it is what it says it is, a podcast that features essays on various subjects, read by their authors.
The article, by Adam Gopnik, is called “Can’t We Come Up with Something Better Than Liberal Democracy?” It can be found here.
For “Lock Him Up,” the latest episode from On the Media, can be found here.
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Enjoy your week!
“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.
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