WELCOME TO
We believed a need existed in Parkland to keep the community informed about the REAL news of what is occurring in our city, so The Parkland PATRIOT was planned and now it is a reality. (The 2006 Parkland election made our minds up!) As far as we at The Parkland Patriot are concerned, the coverage of government and politics in Parkland has been ‘sweetened’ and/or controlled by ‘the powers that be’. So, we're here to change that and ‘shake-up’ the status quo!
Our main objective for The Parkland Patriot is to keep the citizens of Parkland informed about our elected commissioners as to what they are ‘up to’, not only out in the “Sunshine” of 'openness', but what they are also up to 'behind the scenes'. We are interested in how Parkland's administration, management, citizen participation, policies, ambiance and psyche affect (or not affect) our lifestyle. How do other forces, beyond Parkland, influence our daily lives?
We believe that there is a definite NEED for a 21st century medium, like THE PARKLAND PATRIOT. Our ‘raison d’être’ is to inform, educate and activate our community as well as to interact as the vehicle for 2-way communications in an open, public forum. We are offering ALL of our readers a chance to write articles, comment on Parkland’s affairs, recommend topics for commentary and have the ‘power’ to contact our elected (and appointed) government officials, at a 'stroke of a key'.
THE PARKLAND PATRIOT is a progressive, populist cyber-journal. We will offer many viewpoints from writers both here in Parkland and 'beyond' our city limits. We will offer a variety of opinions to inform you, our readers, about the where, what, why, when, who, and how of Parkland. We will be open to all viewpoints so that our readers will feel comfortable with our content.
Government and politics, two of the most important segments of OUR lives (whether you like it or not) have been sorely missing from that constant barrage of monthly and weekly 'puff media' we have been receiving in our mailboxes for over a decade. It seems to us that these publications are only focusing on the "good times" in the City of Parkland . . . ignoring the facts, but reporting the frills.
Don’t get us wrong, publications like, The Parkland Gazette, Parkland Life, the Parklander, The Coral Springs/Parkland Neighborhood News and Parkland Lifestyle with their pretty pictures of people at social events, or their stories about vacations to Hawaii for the surf, or Colorado for the snow, or what a bride should know about planning for her August wedding, or what the schedule for “This Month’s Civic Functions” are is not a crime, but we saw that an urgent need for REAL news, information, education and 2-way communications has been apparent since our city commission election of 2003 was 'fought'.
We’ve found that even with the daily 'Local News' section of that ‘beacon of media truthfulness’, the Sun-Sentinel. REAL news reporting about our City of Parkland is hit or miss. Yet, the exceptions to this tedium amongst our local print media are Christine Hunchofsky, who writes an outstanding monthly news column on the activities of our Parkland Commissioners for Parkland Life and Jonathan Del Marcus, the past editor of Our Town News, who offered us, his readers, excellent news coverage, insight and commentaries on our city. We salute both of these journalists for their excellent writing, which can be compared to a much-needed 'breath of fresh air'.
At THE PARKLAND PATRIOT we believe that our name, centered proudly on our masthead, tells our readers what our goals and concerns are. We are strong supporters of the City of Parkland and, specifically, her citizens. We started this cyber-journal because it was about time that REAL news, views and commentary flowed freely in our city.
We look forward to bringing you “news and views to use and great commentary to think about”.
Ira H. Goldman, Publisher
7 July 2007
