TO THE EDITOR: THE NORTHFIELD NEWS TOM EVSLIN, the man appointed by Governor Douglas to oversee the spending of Federal economic stimulus funds in Vermont, has a new mission.…. to kill your local newspaper.

Evslin, also a former Microsoft executive, believes that newspapers should be replaced by internet and social networking sites as a way to distribute “legal notices” required to inform the public of government activities. This is the sort of stuff that government is supposed to warn you of when they plan to change the rules or regulations.… and to give you the opportunity to respond.

Evslin’s logic is that digital media is much cheaper and equally as efficient in reaching you as those of us who print your local newspaper. In theory he has a point. In reality he’s dead wrong.

Since The Mountain Times get’s very little in the way of “legal notices” we really have no financial axe to grind here, but we care because Evslin’s proposal is just another elitist self-serving government answer to problems that confront the common man.

According to Evslin the State of Vermont can save about $100,000 a year by not printing legal notices in newspapers. That amounts to about 15 cents per Vermonter per year to be informed of basic government change.

The alternative would be to go to a state website to get the info, or have the state email you or be “twittered” or be sent an RSS notice. This information would be buried in the already overflowing bucket of trash and junk mail that those of us with mail accounts already receive.…. or, it might be identified as “spam” and eliminated by your email provider altogether.…. or you will begin getting thousands of “legal notices” that originate from Russia, China and Afghanistan asking for your credit card to pay a “new mandatory fee” in Vermont.

The problem with the interned in general is that we live in an age of a glut of information; even the best of which is self-serving. If the government gives up legal notices to electronic media they will also give up the credibility, legitimacy and honesty of your local newspaper, radio or TV station.

Already, in Rutland, Vermont we have no more local radio news. We have never had a local TV station. We have PEG TV if you pay for cable. We have an honest, but struggling daily newspaper. We have several tabloid “shoppers” and one community newspaper.… The Mountain Times.

What Mr. Evslin fails to realize is the value of your local media outlet.… whether it be newspaper, radio or TV. We are the eyes and ears of the community. We are the ones that ferret out corruption; filter out dis-information; expose stupidity and “police” the ever growing cacaphony of wrong information. We are the also the first place that politicians and state leaders like Mr. Evslin send their PR and their pictures kissing babies when they want people to know about their personal victories.

The “impersonal age” we live in began with the telephone answering machine, so you could be home drunk and have some electronic tin-man explain that “we’re away from the phone right now, but your message is important to us.… bla bla”.

Next, we got “caller ID” so we could be home drunk, but if the little screen came up with one of your “drink and dial” buddies names you go ahead and answer.

Then the commercial world caught on and eliminated any hope of talking to anybody under any circumstances.…. “Thank you for calling the IRS, for English press 1; para la prensa española dos. For faster service visit our website at www.irs.gov.fed.taxes.info.2010.service.org. This call may be monitored for quality assurance (boy.… how would you like to work there?). For income taxes press 1; for corporate taxes press 2; for bla, bla, bla”

Then comes Mr. Evslin.… the man that’s going to save you 15 cents a person on the distribution of critical government operations, but you can’t reach him to discuss it. Try for yourself. Visit the State website Office of Stimulus and Economic Recovery... which he leads... and find his phone number or email address.… it’s not there. Or visit his personal website “Fractals of Change.com” there’s no numbers there either. Or visit his blog http://blog.tomevslin.com/ and there’s no way to reach him there as well.

Mr. Evslin’s personal cocoon is exactly what happens to the world when you hand your fate over to answering machines, websites, blogs and social networks.…. much of which is put in place to tune you out; not tune you in. Much of which makes it impossible to reach the person you really need to talk to, but which Mr. Evslin unconsciously endorses as progress.

If the state needs to save money why not just return to basics. Have a simple rule that no state employee; no state agency: and no politician may be paid or funded better, or have better benefits than the businesses and people they serve.… and every one of them has a direct phone line that they answer in person. Let’s insist on it... shall we?

ROYAL BARNARD

Publisher Mountain Times