News From Nowhere

Perhaps you're a regular reader. Perhaps this is the first time you've taken a look at this publication. Regardless of your readership status, we'd like to welcome you into the fold with a short explanation of our angle. If we were a heartless bureaucracy, we might propose (in all-too-common jargon) a “mission statement.” Fortunately, we aren't on any sort of mission, so we'll just call this “a little bit of background.” News From Nowhere is a community publication, in every conceivable aspect. Hence why our banner says “published in, by and for the Wyoming community.” All of our writers are Wyoming natives. All of our advertisers are locally-owned businesses. Our paper is printed at Digital Blues, a local print shop. All of our distribution locations (aside from some charitable institutions like the Salvation Army) are locally-owned businesses. Not to belabor the point, but we kinda like the community. More to the point, we think you should like the community, too. In a time of unprecedented centralization—in government, business, and media—we think that the counterweight to the many and multifaceted monopolies that dominate our lives is obvious: community. This is not a “liberal” or a “conservative” premise. Rather, it is an ideal that was near-universal in our country as recently as the beginning of the 20th century. In Wyoming, where we still pay homage to the 19th-century concept of a cowboy—and no, it is not embodied in our ludicrously-legislated “Cowboy Code,” written by a Wall Street investor—it would seem the community approach should fit quite aptly. We hope you will agree. Importantly, though our paper might be an “alternative” publication, we reject cliché labels such as “counterculture,” “underground,” or “radical,” unless allowing people to exercise their first amendment rights is “radical.” Our paper is distributed above-ground in legitimate places of business, and we are no more radical than the variety of people who choose to submit their work for your consideration. We have an open submissions policy, meaning we reject nothing, and accept everything. What does this mean for you? If you don't like what our contributors have to say, you have the power to become a contributor yourself, to change the look and feel of NFN. So please, throw your own voice in with the chorus, and help us make this paper truly reflective of the community that spawned it. Our prime directive is to give voice to those who want to be heard, and we can only hope that the example of our previous community contributors will inspire others to do the same. While our paper does have a number of regular contributors (for which we are thankful), we at NFN believe that variety is the spice of life, and as such, actively encourage/harass our fellow Wyomingites to submit their work to our paper. That means you, your family, and your friends. So spread the word, and let's see what happens with this little social experiment of ours.