A Tip of the Hat!

Last Monday (April 22), the Concord Grange presented their annual awards, this year at Concord’s beautiful Kimball-Jenkins Estate. To my great surprise, I was one of the recipients, receiving this year’s Media Award.

I know that, in large part, this was due to the series of blogs I have been writing for Concord NH Patch for the past 22 months or so. To the many who have taken the time to stop and read my ramblings, thank you for indulging me and for the part you played in helping me to receive this very humbling recognition.

There are certainly far better writers on Patch. Allan Herschlag, state Rep. Rick Watrous and Barb Higgins are names that spring quickly to mind although there are certainly many others. There are many writers far edgier than I am. A day doesn’t pass in which I don’t spend at least an hour on the Concord NH Patch website, often coming away with a deep respect and admiration for those who contribute in creating a great local forum for healthy discussions and opinions freely voiced.

I try, nonetheless, to always write with honesty and conviction. I try to enlighten, inform, entertain and perhaps bring insight gleamed from living in Concord for more than half a century.

I’m not a great historian, but I absorbed my surroundings and have enjoyed writing about the city as it was while not losing my belief that the best years for Concord can lie ahead, although I am adamant in my feelings that there are precarious obstacles in that roadway, obstacles that often times seem to be ignored.

Frequently, I am stopped in the checkout line at the local supermarket or at the pharmacy or while out walking downtown, by someone who especially enjoyed one of my blogs or discovered something they didn’t know because of something I wrote. This is what is best about Concord – the connections made and the ability to comfortably share those feelings created by opinions and stories voiced on Patch.

Patch readers are a very informed group who don’t hesitate for an instant in giving their opinion about any story or piece they read. I relish reading all of their passionately expressed takes, which only reinforce how fortunate we are in the USA to be able to speak our mind. I know that personally some of my own viewpoints have been altered by my considering differing opinions expressed by readers.

Thank you Tony, for encouraging active participation on Patch, and thank you Patch readers for your fearlessness in speaking out. We are all the better for it.