About me
I'm a retired educator with interests in media, politics and popular culture.
About this blog
Over the years I've grown tired of the lack of attention given to a number of important issues that affect Ohio Valley residents. This blog will try to cover some of those issues. More importantly, the issues that are covered by local media (especially our newspapers) are often done with blatant partisanship. This problem is not a new one for West Virginia -- here's a report from the West Virginia Tax Commission Report on State Development from 1884:
Whatever information or argument will cajole the people into advancing the money making schemes of individuals is published in papers, proclaimed on the hustings and advocated by men employed to manufacture public opinion. On the other hand every fact calculated to acquaint the people with the true condition of affairs is frequently carefully suppressed by influential jounals and by those who are recognized as successful politicians.
I believe the problem has grown much worse and so this blog will address some of those issues.
With no experience in blogging and average (at best) computer skills, I began work on this blog in early 2014. I found the learning curve on Wordpress frustrating and so I looked for a friendlier platform. After some research, I bought a website-creation program and it got me up and running in March of 2014 at wheelingalternative.com. While I was able to publish, the process was very time-consuming -- even a year later. (Not helping was the most recent version of my software which caused me all kinds of difficulties with font sizing.) Additionally, I grew dissatisfied with the look of the blog and some of the limitations of the program. In mid-April of 2015 I went looking for a simpler approach and I found Silvrback. This platform has allowed me get my ideas online easier and, more importantly, provide you with an alternative to Wheeling media.
Contacting me
My previous website at Wheeling Alternative.com had an easy-to-find link to contact me which I then referenced on this site after I moved. Earlier this year, I allowed the ownership of the domain name "Wheeling Alternative " to expire. Apparently, someone bought the name and is now calling the page "Wheeling Al ert native." (The site sells moving boxes and it appears to have nothing to do with Wheeling. The only connection to moving that I can think of is that my last front page on the site had a cartoon explaining that I was moving my blog to Silvrback.)
There is still a way to contact me. If you receive email notices (RSS) when I publish something -- simply hit the "reply" button on the email notice. This ought to bring up my gmail account.
Making comments about posts
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