To the editor:
I’m a Habersham native (Clarkesville, to be exact) who makes sure to visit as often as possible, but I must admit I don’t stay abreast of the local goings-on as much as I’d like to. I live well outside The Northeast Georgian’s circulatory system nowadays, so I found an “e-copy” on the paper’s website. Here’s how it went:
Page 1: great reporting, just like in the good ol’ days. I especially enjoyed the piece “Reaching out to everyone” by Brian Wellmeier. We need more inspirational stories of people doing good for its own sake in our communities! I wanted to finish the story, but this is where my difficulties – and my reason for writing this letter – began.The bottom of the aforementioned article – the portion of it featured on the front page – reads “HEALTH on 3” (in, I must say, an inspired bold font whose lowercase letters are apparently just smaller uppercase letters. It’s quite a thing to see, and I encourage readers to check out this unusual typeface in the bylines of this newspaper), a helpful indication of the whereabouts of this compelling article’s ultimate conclusion.
Or so I thought! When, skipping over page 2, I eagerly sought the culmination of “Reaching out to everyone,” I found myself three full paragraphs into “Mt. Airy holds line on longtime millage rate” by Matthew Osborne.
Still a fantastic read, but I realized after some investment that I had gotten distracted by my desire to learn what a “millage rate” is.
If you want to find out for yourself, I encourage you to revisit the Aug. 3, 2022, edition of The Northeast Georgian and seek out the story, printed in its entirety at the top of page 3.
I’m no expert – I come from a long line of salt-of-the-earth country folk – but I seem to remember newspapers being easier to navigate. Something has changed, but I guess it’s up to me to adapt to that change and confront my own limitations in the face of our rapidly complexifying world.
Kevin Craig
Albany