Special Report

Before your eyes glaze over and you turn straight to the Sports section or Small Talk, give me a minute.

I know what many of you are thinking: What is The Star going to tell me about welfare reform that I don’t already know? Or, I don’t really care, the whole system is broke and out of control and nobody can fix it, anyway.

Maybe you’re right. And maybe that’s part of the problem. That’s why we’re trying to tell this story in a different way, which makes this report unusual, and - I hope - special.

Politicians, with the help of lobbyists, bureaucrats, special interest groups and commentators, have framed the national debate about welfare reform, as they do with most public policy issues.

We’re inundated with incessant noise from all sides and from all stripes of public servants, telling us why we need to do things their way if we want to fix the problem and warning us that the other guy’s solution is wrong, bad or downright dangerous. All too often, we in the news media lend megaphones only to the voices of the credentialed officials and their loudest opponents, letting them shout at each other across our pages and calling this balanced reporting. Maybe it is balanced, but it’s sure not complete.

Where is your voice in this debate? Are we seeking and listening to the real people behind the labels “welfare mother,” “right-wing conservative,” “bleeding-heart liberal,” “blue-collar worker,” “the underclass,” “middle-class taxpayer”?

Some journalists will argue, with merit, that it is impossible to find the quintessential, or even typical, person to speak for any of these ill-defined groupings of people. Not all “welfare mothers” have the same story. Not all “middle-class taxpayers” speak with the same voice.

So what? Isn’t it possible that we might learn something by letting people speak just for themselves?

That’s what we’re trying today, an experiment in what some have called civic journalism, or public journalism, which could be loosely defined as engaging people in dialogue about issues of public interest and concern. Which is what I’ve always thought a good community newspaper does.

Instead of just rounding up the usual suspects, we asked some “real people” to help write part of the welfare story themselves, to lend their voices, their own words, to our report.

These people are no more typical than you and I; neither are they experts. Some are on welfare; some are not. Some have jobs; some do not. About the only thing they have in common is being part of our community of communities - and agreeing to talk to us about welfare.

I hope you will read their words, listen to the voices and have something of your own to say about this issue. If you do, share it with us. Write down your thoughts, your opinions, your frustrations, your solutions. Send them to “Voices,” The Anniston Star, P.O. Box 189, Anniston 36202-0189. Let’s start with voices. Then maybe we can get together and start having real conversations.