What you want . . . and is it good for you?

We hear people asking all the time, “But is this good for us?” But maybe we already know the answer. In many cases, the answer is no.
Much of what is offered to us in the marketplace is not good for us and we know it. Drinks containing alcohol, food additives, chemicals in cosmetic products, certain hair dyes. We are not supposed to use hand-held devices while we drive, but still, we do so when we think no one is looking. We eat the foods that are pushed at us, even though we know that fast food isn’t the best choice for us. We don’t get enough sleep, yet are glued to our computer or laptop screens and get dry, stressed eyes as a result. We don’t walk enough. We don’t talk to each other enough.
If we do what we want to do, one would think we could cease and desist if it is all a matter of choice. But  somehow, it feels as if our choices have been narrowed down by someone outside of our control.
As we prepare the information, tips, photos and coverage of news events for our stressful layout day here at this newspaper each Tuesday, we spend a lot of time thinking about choice – and what people want.
For while much of what we include in these pages is what you -- our community of followers -- has sent us, there are also the stories that we, in our so-called professonal wisdom, have prepared for you.
The township’s new sign bylaw, municipal deficits, ambulance wait times, emergency room wait times, municipal elections, Quebec patients using Ontario medical facilities, the local music festival, upcoming local events, fundraisers, volunteer recognition . . . and the list goes on.
We have a pretty good handle on what interests you and what doesn’t. We know that the latest list of gizmos for the municipal sewage treatment plant has limited appeal when stacked up against a local hockey player who makes it to the big time.
In response to your requests, we try to keep things short. But sometimes, it’s hard. We’re trying to tell the story and give some background, too. We think it is important to give context to a story so that if you were reading about some subject for the first time, you would understand the big picture. Maybe even this is too much for most of us in this era of information overload.
The old school way of doing things is for newspapers to give you all the information that’s good for you: whether you want it or not. But in today’s world, where it is all about choice (or so we are lead to believe), we, too, can get co-opted into changing our standards until the only thing we publish in our pages is pictures of groups of people holding giant cheques. Or stuff that you only need to think about for a few seconds before dumping the paper into the blue box.
Are we lazy? Probably not. Reams of information is hard to sift through – but it can be done. We still have the ability to drill down to the good stuff and we are being sold a bill of goods if we buy into the idea that it is all too complicated for the average person to understand local government, our board of education’s financial statement, our health care system or our drinking water regulations.
We will continue to rely on you, our readers, for feedback; we know that many of you are out there reading, thinking and caring about our communities.
We will continue to do our best to balance what we bring you each week with a healthy dose of news blended with content supplied by you for sharing.
Like you, we know we’ll be learning something new every day.
That, in itself, will be good for us.                        L.S.