Eagle-Eyes and Hammerhead won’t quit. Here they are, again, this morning with yet another headline to share with our readers. I truly believe they have replaced ‘Me, Myself, & I’ as blogging addicts. Then, again, maybe they are just competing with each other about who will post the greatest number of blogs. It won’t matter as long as what they have to say is meaningful. What headline got them excited today?

Oh, no! David Lazarus wrote his last column for the S.F. Chronicle while we were away on a trip. He says he wasn’t fired, just moving on to write for another metropolitan newspaper in southern California. Petalumans will recall that David has spoken in our favorite river town, along with Belva Davis, at a community forum. He has also been a frequent guest reporter on Belva’s public TV show, “This Week in Northern California.” He admits that some of his columns have generated a little heat from time to time. Hammerhead thinks his comments frequently “hit the nail on the head.”

Although David’s final column highlighted the state of consumer advocacy in the U.S. and the impact that Ralph Nader’s viewpoints have had on readers; it was the secondary headline that caught Eagle-Eyes’ attention – “Some newspapers still advocate for the common good.” One point that Nader made repeatedly related to the differences in the role that the media has played over the years. Evidently, Nader believes that today’s media “have lost interest in consumer advocacy as both a story and a calling” -. “This, in turn, leaves the consumer movement voiceless.” Hmmm, that really is “food for thought.”

The column continues with comments like, “People feel powerless. They feel like no one’s there to help them. They just give up.” Wham-o, says Hammerhead to ‘Me, Myself, & I’; “haven’t you been a firm believer in pursuing community benefit projects that create the greatest good for the greatest number of people?” ‘Me’ says to ‘I’, “get off your duff and stop all this huff, buff and fluff.” Both of them yell at ‘Myself’, “spring into action!” We pause and think about it, and reflect on what has been learned over the past decade from PetalumaNet 1.0 projects and two years of nurturing NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams).

We ask ourselves, “Where do we go from here?” Perhaps a new twist to an old theme might be in the works. The key question is, “How might volunteer ‘sparkplugs’, who are willing to step up to the plate, be mobilized to address those local community issues and concerns that are most important to them and their neighbors?” All “five of us” will have to get our heads together on this challenge. PetalumaNet 2.0 is on the radar screen; but first, the garage has to be cleaned up – or else. Stay tuned.