Macon Magazine

6 l MACON MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 editorial I by james palmer We were having dinner at a favorite restaurant, when a well-known, long- time community leader sat down at our table. He wasn't there to see us but rather the person we were dining with. But he did pay the magazine a compliment. "You have no idea the impact the magazine has on the community," he said. We thanked him and moved on to other topics. But I hope what he said is true because, amid the recipes and interior decorating and fashion tips, we do strive to report on our community. e magazine may be glossy and offer up a feel-good look at Macon and its surroundings, but we never forget that our backgrounds are firmly entrenched in the news. ere are many different types of people who read Macon Magazine. ere are those who buy it for the recipes and interior design stories. ere are those who enjoy having it on their coffee tables, or, as one woman once told us, it's important to have in the guest bathroom when company's coming because it's pretty. And that's fine with us. But we also have another type of reader, those who lead and shape our community conversation. We only have to call up our subscription list and see who's on it to understand we have an obligation to offer information to help move that conversation along in a positive way. Why? Because we want to push back against the naysayers and those who paint our community in a negative light. is, in essence, is the purpose of the I love Macon campaign started by our 2011 Five Under 40 young leader group, Josh Rogers, Julia Wood, Heather Bowman Cutway, Pilar Wilder and Wes Griffith. And it has gone way beyond the pages of the magazine. e simple purpose of the campaign is to get residents to sign a pledge agreeing to talk about Macon positives, not negatives all the time. at's it. No catches, no hidden agendas. Susannah Maddux has been directing the campaign with the young leaders, and they have gotten 6,500 signatures so far. e most recent signing, a special wall at Daybreak, the new resource center on Walnut Street for homeless people in the city, is one of the most touching and special. An orange wall with the ILM logo proudly displayed is there for all to sign. e campaign is slated to finish in January, but we see no reason for a finish. ey want to get 10,000 signatures, and they are more than halfway there. Why stop signing a pledge aer an arbitrary 12 months anyway? We're not going to stop loving Macon at that point, are we? Sure we have problems: public education, divisive politics, racial divides and an under-educated workforce are among the challenges we all face. But we also have a dynamic group of younger leaders who are stepping up and working hard to make good things happen. We have visionary leadership placed in critical positions within our community. We're blessed to have local foundations, such as Peyton Anderson and the Community Foundation, that undergird a variety of efforts to li up our community. e Knight Foundation, while certainly more than local in scope, has made a tremendous, game-changing effect on the future of Macon. Local colleges and universities continue to expand their presence in the most positive ways. And the arts community separates Macon from any city in our state geographically located between Savannah and Atlanta. e idea, for example, that world-class musicians call Macon home because of Mercer's Townsend School of Music and the McDuffie Center for Strings should never be minimized. e arts are an economic engine, plain and simple. And among those positives there are stories that need to be told. We feel our job is to tell them. In a world of information that has grown more shrill and biased on a national level, what you find in our pages we happily acknowledge is tilted toward the positive. But, to steal the Rotary mantra: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build good will and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? at's our goal. Celebrating the good life goes far beyond pretty pictures and producing a magazine that's looks good on your coffee table. Adapting to the times is also critical to our mission. We now have a multi-media manager who uses social media to further expand Macon Magazine's reach. We're producing more web-exclusive content as we push the electronic version of the magazine with the goal of reaching new audiences. at effort will only grow stronger in the coming months. And whether we're talking about online, Facebook, Twitter or the print product, we are locally produced content, written by local people who care about our community. e irony for us is we get to do the same job we did for years, it's just wrapped in a much prettier package, and we can focus on the positive instead of having to report the negative. But, make no mistake, the commitment to get it right and the passion for reporting the local news is still there. We love Macon, and our mission is to make it worth celebrating. M IT 'S ALL LOC AL ALL THE TIME

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