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by Glenn C. Koenig, Webmaster at Town Wide Mall
The group is headed up by a seven member board of directors, many of whom were previously involved in The Maynard Advantage, a newsletter sent out by e-mail, with editions published at various times over the past few years. Unlike the Maynard Advantage, which was organized to promote Maynard as a good place to live, work, or visit, The Maynard Voice represents a change from an advocacy organization to a journalist one. The mission statement, available under the “About Us” heading on their home page states, in part, that it is, “to provide accessible, accurate, and non-partisan information to residents, business owners, and stakeholders.”
The Maynard Voice joins other local news non-profit organizations in nearby towns, including The Concord Bridge https://concordbridge.org and The Acton Exchange https://www.actonexchange.org/ Unlike The Concord Bridge which publishes on paper, The Maynard Voice and The Acton Exchange are “web site only” publications, at least for now. Going Forward Although it may seem that The Maynard Voice competes with Town Wide Mall for readers, that is not the case. I welcome the advent of more news coverage in Maynard, after having published news stories here since April of 2023. (See a list of stories I've published starting back then, on the News Index page.) Starting now, both Town Wide Mall and The Maynard Voice will work to complement each other. I tend to publish stories less frequently than most newspapers do, but I tend to go more in depth, more in the tradition of "news features," rather than just short bulletins. In contrast to that, The Maynard Voice, as I understand it, is dedicated to publishing more stories, more frequently, on a more timely basis. We have discussed the possibility that I may, at times, submit commentary to The Maynard Voice, to include with stories in their publication. The details haven't been worked out just yet, but we hope to develop this idea further. Commentary
Frequent readers of my stories may have noticed that I have been publishing a little less often, compared to when I started out. If you scroll down on the News Index page, you can easily see this trend. There are a few reasons for this, including typical events facing home owners, such as replacing a heating system, and other family events - things that often take more time than expected in life. But another reason has to do with an evolution of my focus. The world is changing rapidly and profoundly, and I seem to be changing along with it. I have been keenly interested in national and world events, for decades by now. I even included some essays describing trends I was seeing, in my book "a man wearing a dress," which I published back in 2017. However, when I started the Town Wide Mall web site, I vowed to keep my stories and commentary as locally focused and non-partisan as possible. But I have had more and more thoughts over time that relate to the bigger picture, outside the borders of our town. Over the last year, approximately, I have increasingly felt the urge to publish commentary related to this bigger picture. After all, I see a great need to provide a perspective that goes beyond the daily headlines and news stories that flood our inboxes, web browsers, TV screens, and radio reports daily. Back last Fall, I began working on a new series of essays, that were outside the scope of what I was doing here on Town Wide Mall. For months, I kept writing, but was disappointed with what I ended up with. I wanted to provide an alternative to the sometimes disturbing or upsetting news of the day, but some of what I wrote seemed to just make things worse. After nearly 100 unfinished essays, I finally began to feel that I had finally found the right voice, so to speak. So, a few weeks ago, I established an account on the Substack online service. I have posted three pieces there already and am working on more. My Substack Account is available here: https://glennckoenig.substack.com/ The other day, while walking in downtown Maynard, I met someone who had been reading my news stories, here on this web site. I remarked at the time, that I had a story almost finished, but I hadn't written the commentary section just yet. She replied, "Oh, the commentary is the best part!" Of course, remarks like that warm my heart, but for her and others like her, I'm glad to say that my essays on Substack are designed to be pure commentary. Living in times of rapid and profound change can easily be challenging and even upsetting. My goal is to help others see our current situation from new perspectives. I firmly believe that, although there may be plenty of reasons to feel upset or even despair these days, we will eventually get through all this and reach a better place in the long run. I plan to "hang in there," so to speak, and I hope you are able to do the same. Gratitude One more thing. Over the past two and a half years a number of people have graciously clicked the Donate button, below, and contributed funds to help me cover my expenses in doing this work. I am deeply indebted to them all for their generosity. Others have commented on my stories, here on this web site (as well as in social media). As I work diligently in creating these news stories, I am as much a flawed human being as anyone else, so I have focused so much on writing and publishing, that I have neglected to directly acknowledge those individuals for their contributions, and I have also often let comments go unacknowledgeds (and questions unanswered) for months at a time, as I am often overwhelmed with the volume of mail in my e-mail inbox! Please know that I am sincerely thankful for the support and feedback you all have provided! Town Wide Mall is free for anyone to read and carries no advertising, so our only means of support is from donations. Please consider helping with a donation of any amount. Click on the Donate button, below, to see the options.
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