Thought-provoking, isn’t it, how Election Day is followed a week later by Veterans Day? Perhaps it should be the reverse, since we would not have the right to vote if not for the veterans who fought for it in so many wars and in peacetime too.
We know that 80% of community newspaper subscribers do vote, taking seriously the responsibility to help run our towns, our counties, our states and our nation. That is not the case with television viewers and even daily newspaper readers.
This means community newspapers have a special responsibility to inform voters in a fair and unbiased fashion. They also provide a variety of viewpoints, which is important on an island that has one major newspaper.
Thus, it is with a heightened sense of responsibility that Bellmore Life and its sister publications mark Bellmore’s community newspaper’s 45th anniversary in the coming week.
We have longtime faithful readers, like the one who called us up last week to chide us for making the type size so small in the editorial in an attempt to fit in a few more thoughts on Election Week. “I shouldn’t have to buy a magnifying glass to read my newspaper,” she chided. And we promised to write tighter this week.
That said, there could never be enough words to express our thanks to Bellmore Life’s founder, Johannes Laursen, for all the work involved in starting the newspaper and working as Bellmore chamber president on a shopping survey that got government help to re-map the downtown area with improved parking and street design decades ago, a prelude to more recent downtown revitalization. In addition, the newspaper and its readers fought to raise the Long Island Rail Road tracks, pushed for improvements in schools and parks and helped connect the haves and the have-nots.
Bellmore Life has started a Facebook page this week, with its first picture album featuring the Bellmore Fair. Merrick Life, The Citizen and The Leader also have Facebook pages. We envision it as a way to upload breaking news and get reader feedback. It is also another way to create a community. Will you be our fan on Facebook?