Today the City of Bloomfield Hills Blog is One Year Old. Time to Mull Over Mission Statement Movies?

That persistent beeping noise you are experiencing as you read this is not a traffic jam or a garbage truck backing up. It is The City of Bloomfield Hill blog blowing it's own  horn. HONK ! A year ago on June 1st 2011 edition one hit cyber space and after the next four or five of editions we were delighted to have 13 or so visitors for those  pages. Now 360 more days has gone by and we have published 222  editions and those pages have enjoyed  13,167 visits. That is up from the 10,000 visits we had at the start of April and the 5,356  last December. For year end we put All  who had visited our blog (collectively) on the short lost of our Person of the Year honors.We firmly believe that anyone who reads this publication deserves award. Your interest in local affairs is commendable . You have definitely acted in the public good.


The Question is have we ?  I first heard of such a question when I was home from College a number of decades ago. It was a Saturday and my Father, a television executive came to breakfast dressed for the office. I commented and he said he was going to the city to meet a  minister and his flock. They  had some interesting projects going on and he would learn about them. The TV station where he worked  was  licensed to broadcast by the Federal Communications Commission. Periodically that license came up for review and the station had to demonstrate at public hearings that they acted in the public good. Those hearings were promoted on the station and because  in those quaint days the people were presumed to own the airwaves the public was invited to attend or to show cause  why or why not the licence should be renewed..


Newspapers and printed publications are different. They are governed by the concept of Freedom of the Press and the principals allow such freedom. In terms of the public good we could always be better. The Oakland Press who helped launch us and in who's on line edition we appear asked for 3 submissions a week with a word count of 300 or so words. That's 156 per year . We delivered 222 and constantly topped the 300 word count. The latter aspect is depending on your view point is either good, or bad, but  not
indifferent. The topics we cover are not  available  elsewhere. It seems the weekly press is adverse to covering events that involve night time meetings. We are not a weekly.  We are two thirds of the way to being daily. Honk !


We are not without our critics however  and we must give the devil it's due. If this blog lacks subtlety  it is because the author has none. In college when the topic of the best movie ever made came up, which oddly enough came up quite frequently, the author  always argued for John Ford's "The Horse Soldiers" staring John Wayne.

Others kids argued for Citizen Kane, 2001 Space Odyssey, Grand Illusion, or  Easy Rider. I didn't win any arguments but  when "Mission Statements" came in vogue in the nineties I wondered why. What could be said that wasn't already said in the Horse Soldiers.  In time and with repeat viewings  I managed to memorize  most of the dialogue in the key scenes and apply them to situations life presented. While critics would agree that The Horse Soldiers was not John Ford's greatest work, in 1941 it was he  (not Citizen Kane's Orson Welles) who won best director Oscar for the film How Green was my Valley. That fact once considered a monumental travesty is now a studied point by revisionists. Citizen Kane, I always regarded as one of one of the creepiest movies ever. Stark scenes, weird camera angles, and weird people,( like the guy who wigs out in a house so big he calls it Xanadu) and in the end it's all about some sled that is thrown in a furnace.


As the years go  by, in the spirit of enhanced wisdom at a later age I  am  also  reviewing that opinion as well. The thought has occurred to me that there might be a more polished Mission Statement Movie than The Horse Soldiers, and guess what turned up ?

Mr Thatcher's  visit to the Inquirer, is prompted by the news  of an Armada (Spanish of course) reported to be off  the New Jersey coast in  the yet to be implemented  Spanish American War. Mr, Thatcher says the report is false. Citizen Kane (based somewhat on real life William Randolph Hearst) asks if he can prove it. Well today he could.. He could go the Television stations and film at 6 and 11 would reveal no such Armada. Film is an interesting medium. So is print and the ability to combine the two is a most recent phenomena. Incidentally the Oakland Press is at the vanguard such reporting. In the coming year we will  use video to show aspects of our City as well as writing about them.

We are  not however  not feuding with the transit company. The City of Bloomfield Hills doesn't have one. 

We do  feud  with City Commission. We don't mind the fact that they may not know how to run a government any more than we know how to run a newspaper. What we mind is that they are not trying everything. A big for instance would be consulting the public first and foremost. That is why we made it our point to tell the public first and foremost. We are a City of 3800 people not five commissioners. Some of our 3800 residents have a dramatic influence on the Global Economy. We hope to share some of those stories in the coming year.


We believe that if the people are not attending City Commission meetings, City Commission as the town's elected Government should be going to them. Otherwise we run the risk of being robbed blind by what someday might be a pack of power mad pirates. We see our role as looking out for the civic interests of our residents.


In an interesting and entertaining manner of  course. In that regard it  is amazing how well  Mr. Thatcher plays the role of my wife. Long suffering wife, I might add. In the  summer when  we go up north with Uncle Mike we stop at the Big Boy. Them to eat. Me to tap into the WiFi and rewrite the blog. I sit at a  separate table so that if I spill my iced tea and wipe out everything there will be only me to blame.Uncle Mike usually asks why  I am sitting "over there." The wife  sounding none too pleased replies "don't ask" When they pass me on the way to the cash register I look up and see my wife with palm of hand extended  indicating  that I have five minutes. I nod. Ten minutes later she returns to plop down beside me  and asks why I can't just write 300 words and be done with it. I explain that I  had to do over the paper  four times. She asks if I think anyone will notice. I say I would.

Our Promise to you in year two ?

• To inform and entertain
• To provide the people of this City with a tireless champion of  their rights as citizens.
• To Offer City Blogs from five continents from people who live there and like it.
• To Offer an on line conduit to the Baldwin Library.
• To offer an on line conduit to City Hall
• To connect to every every local paper in the area and provide a search engine that can search all of  of them.
• To develop your ability to express yourself in our blog.

It was said that in the  Calvary of Ulysses Simpson Grant there is no such thing as can't. In fact shortly before the war started the General himself was a clerk in a leather goods store. The rest as they say is history.