Absolutely positive, it's all good news

It's not easy being positive. Life has this nasty way of throwing unpleasantness at you.

It can be people or events, often unexpected, that you simply would rather do without.

Still, despite all the knocks and setbacks, most people try to have an optimistic outlook on life and the future. Certainly at the Chronicle we do, which is why in so many of the stories we emphasise the positive aspects of local life and the great achievements of local people.

It's one of the reasons we launched our Celebrating Wanganui series and, thankfully, for the most part, readers have been receptive and appreciative of our efforts. Even with that though, there have been knockers, those who say it's lightweight fluff and not deserving of being called news.

They will be disappointed to know that they are the minority and we will plough on with our series. In fact, today we bring you a guest editorial from Whanganui Regional Museum director Eric Dorfman, and another batch in our collection of questionnaires people have completed.

It's a funny thing how when we launched our campaign, along with our new format, some people seemed to assume that the newspaper would only do bright, happy promotional stories on the news pages, especially the front page. Where possible we will continue, as we always have, to cover the hard issues, including crime.

It is one of the basic tenets of the justice system that its processes remain accessible to the media to enable clarity and transparency. Publishing details of offending is often cited as one of the major deterrent factors intrinsic to the process, and proves that the justice system is working, as well as identifying potential issues of social policy.

Besides which, in regards to stories where we hold local authorities to account or seek to find out about behaviour issues at schools and teachers with convictions, there is a public interest in that. It is our tax money that pays the wages of these people and covers running costs of the institutions. Wouldn't you want to know if your money was being spent wisely?

So, we will continue to explore and expose information that we think is relevant and of interest to you - positive or negative.

In the meantime, we will continue with Celebrating Wanganui. Thanks to those who have taken the time to fill out the survey forms from the paper.

Finally, a plea: join us by sharing your news tips of people and organisations who are doing great things. Send in photographs of your favourite places. As the saying goes, if you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

Feedback: editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz