As They Say About Opinions….

A friend of mine expressed concern after learning about ScottsdaleTrails.

She asked, “Aren’t you worried about aligning yourself with potential controversy? What if you don’t agree with John‘s opinion about something?”

I appreciated her concern. And I suspect more folks in my circle likely have the same question. So I figured I’d share my answer here.

No, I’m not worried.

And here’s why:

ScottsdaleTrails is not actually about John’s opinions.

Yes, John shares his opinions here. But it’s done so with the intent of alerting Scottsdale residents to issues or events so that they can learn more about them and become involved if they have the interest. Our goal is not to create an army of John-Washington-opinion-sharing-clones that will march down to City Hall to carry out John’s vision for how things should be. Although that’s a Council meeting I definitely would not miss!

Anyway.

What is ScottsdaleTrails about?

It’s about connecting Scottsdale residents and taxpayers with our City Government. It’s about connecting them to the City of Scottsdale’s exceptional resources, our City Council, our Boards & Commissions, and the issues they’re reviewing.

We want to be a resource for Scottsdale’s caring, interested residents who want to make a difference – who want to be more active in their community – but who are not sure of how to go about it. We want our readers to be better informed about issues in our community, and to be opinionated on those issues.

We want to help create opinion-havers.

We don’t care what those opinions are, as long as they have them. Disagree with me, please. Disagree with John. Have an opinion. Express it. Post it.

When I first asked John about what he’d like this web site to accomplish, he told me that his phone rings non-stop the week preceding an election. Seems that just about everyone in John’s circle (and I’m learning that it’s a pretty big circle) knows that he’s up on the issues and they want his take on who and what to vote for. He told me:

There is a huge demographic in Scottsdale who aren’t very vocal about their politics, but they are smart, they have a good sense of right and wrong, and they vote. I want to be part of their decision making process.

As much as he likes helping folks make a decision on who to vote for, John would rather have informed opinion-havers visiting the polls that day, making decisions based on their understanding of the issues – and on their opinions.

For our (growing!) list of subscribers who have raised their hands (in an online way, of course) and placed their trust in us to help keep them informed: thank you. We’re thrilled with the interest and support we received last week, and frankly, we were a little surprised by the number of visitors and subscribers to the site.

Here’s to opinion-having!