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What If? — By John Reed

What If?
What if the Democrats get their wish and succeed in unseating President Trump? Vice president Mike Pence would then move up. Those folks should be careful what they wish for: Pence is even more conservative than Trump.
What if our local school board passed a single mill additional property tax, and applied it exclusively to cover all fundraising? Would anybody miss the weekly catalog and candy sales from all the various school groups?
What if we returned our downtown streets to two-way traffic? Once the new bypass is completed, the worst of the large trucks and out of town traffic will be gone. Would the downtown Renaissance succeed better with easier access?
What if you went to your favorite store on Wednesday afternoon and found no newspaper? No news. No descriptions of weekly clashes at City Hall or the county courthouse. No sports coverage. No classified ads. No Parrish report. Not even my column.
In today’s digital world, that’s a very possible scenario. Fewer and fewer small weekly newspapers are surviving. Printing costs rise, advertising revenues decline. More people get their “news“ from social media, which usually is just a modern form of the old gossip fence between nosy neighbors.
Just as there is a role for a traditional library in the 21st Century, the printed newspaper provides a service that can’t be duplicated. And like any other local businesses, it depends on community support to survive.
What if enough people read this to make a difference?

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