A Raw Tally

I don't think I have ever missed a chance to vote in the thirty-one years I've been privileged to participate. (I'd vote twice if they'd let me.) I have strong feelings on many issues and suffered a grueling round trip by Greyhound to Washington last week to express some of them. Much of this week has been spent in creating and planning voter education and information for the website. The NCPR news team is in full election campaign mode. I'm not complaining. Some luminary once said, "Politics is the most fun you can have with your clothes on." Hmmm, imagine politics without your cl... no, never mind.

A Point of Debate

I've been thinking about war all week. Hard not to, given the drumbeat of news. But also, because I've remembered war every October since 1970. When the color of afternoon light is just so, and the leaves are gold above and gold below, and crunch to release that particular odor of tea, I remember. In Potsdam, we stood in the fallen leaves and read the names of the war dead from dawn until dusk, then on through the night. There seemed to be no end to them.

A Forward-looking Retreat

Your Listening Post is a little tardy this week because most of NCPR has been engaged in our annual staff retreat. Our suffering has been ameliorated by the posh splendor of the fall foliage and the sunny ease of dockside conversation on Lake Ozonia, serenaded by geese and loons (not us--the feathered kind). Too bad we actually have to plan and decide and work.

A few of the questions we are looking at: How do we participate usefully in the national debate (or lack of debate) that is taking us toward war? How can we broaden the range of voices within our programs and the range of ears within our audience? How do we bring along the next generation of listeners and speakers in public broadcasting? You, no doubt, have your own notions regarding these topics, and your own notions of other topics we ought to be considering while we navel-gaze. But we won't know what they are unless you tell us. NCPR Listener Comment page.