The Beauty of Blogs

I am very appreciative of you who read my blog. It’s really wonderful that you take the time to read my weekly messages and occasionally let me know you like what I have to say. So, in case I have not said it before, Thank you!

I have tried to make my entries meaningful and thought-provoking in some way, with a little whimsy tossed in. However, I am trying to beef up my readership, so I was looking at events and people that make the biggest headlines. What do they have that people want to read?

A quick look at the “top news” revealed devastating storms, changes in international leadership and the Kardashian’s Christmas card. WHAT? Seriously? The Kardashian’s? What is it about those kooky (my description) family that makes them so irresistible to otherwise normal people? Now that I am a seasoned blogger (1 year and two months!), I was curious as to the type of blog that Ms. K, et al, would produce, so after a half a dozen (irritating) clicks, I finally managed to find it. “It” was, disappointingly yet expected, some flashy photos of herself, the fam and a few other links to all things K. Really? Is that all there is?

Blogging is really a wonderful thing. It allows the famous to the unknown, the knowledgeable to the goofball, the profound to the radical to say something to anyone with an internet connection. That does lead to a conundrum (I have been dying to use that word in a sentence all month!) of easily obtaining free advice and information, but potentially not truthful, valid or safe to employ. There is no Accuracy gauge on any site, but those of us who blog to help others – however oblique and convoluted the message often is! – really do try our best to give you, as our momentary audience, something that is worthy of your time and your consideration.

Which brings me to this. Seasoned journalists are being sorely disappearing as more news media are down-sizing and putting news journalists in unemployment lines. I can’t imagine an LA Times without Steve Lopez or Bill Plaschke! It’s tragic because these are people with their eyes on the world for many years, often discovering crime and injustices where no one had looked before. Look at Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s opening of Watergate, or, for those in Southern California, the City of Bell salary scandal, brought to our attention by a team of twelve journalists from the LA Times. It was their tenacity and bravery that brought these issues to the public’s attention.

Blogs, while no replacement for that caliber of journalistic investigation, can help people. Blogs can prod, enlighten and entertain. Thankfully, some of those vivid analytical journalistic minds have turned to blogs and continue to speak to us electronically. And, for small-time bloggers like myself, I try very hard to bring things that are newsworthy and important, especially in the area of emergency preparedness.

So, read on, dear reader. I will continue to blog as long as there is something worth telling you, and hopefully help you, too. And it is OK, if you wander over to Ms K’s blog. We all need an escape once in a while. Even into that world of make-believe.

Blog On! Oh, and don’t forget to check all your batteries this week. I bet they are on sale...