Just a short bit about NwCitizen this morning. A few thoughts. Nothing heavy. But some things I'd like the regular readers to know.

The idea of this 'blog', or whatever it is called, is to provide local perspectives to local issues. There are currently 12 writers and each has considerable expertise and years of experience in one or more issue areas in our community. Some areas are Lake Whatcom, local politics, local economics, county planning, environmental issues and city planning. Each writer posts when they want and on any topic they want. There is no editing nor approval process. Once a writer, the path is open for posting.

My motivation for providing this forum is community concern. Concern that we need to be able to hear each other. That was much of my motivation for helping found the Whatcom Independent - which lasted 5 years but in the end could not sustain itself financially. With NwCitizen, there is no financial burden - or it is so low that it is less than most guys spend on golf. I started NwCitizen back in 1995 when I wanted to be heard and the Herald decided that it did not want the community to hear from me. And thus this became one of the very earliest political blogs anywhere.

With the use of advanced programming - for which I pay a much younger mind than mine to do - this website can now allow others whom our community should hear from to speak and be read. And it allows anyone who wants to openly comment with their own identity to also speak.

That, gentle reader, is what this site is about. Nothing more. This site can become as informative and useful as all of you make it - or as divisive and full of empty rants as we allow it to become. There is no hidden agenda. Many have clamored for a site like this - and sadly most of those same people now prefer to remain silent or only post where they can do it as anons on other sites. That is their choice.

If someone else creates a useful blog or website that comments on local political issues then I add a link in the right column to their site. Some of the most clicked there now are John Watts, Elizabeth Britt and Sam Taylor. My hope is that either NwCitizen will flourish or else that someone will create a site that effectively replaces this site and I can go sailing more. But till then, this site will do its best to provide a community forum.

A note. Since Ham Hayes declared as a candidate for Port Commissioner, he has decided to not post any articles until after the election.