Sometimes you notice things that surprise you. We realized this week that the Mirror has been in production for over six years now. Maybe not that long relative to the life span of a sea turtle, but we never thought we would be around this long.
The first article was published on June 26, 2015. We led with this quote:
“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
The Mirror has never been the product of inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs and fools. If anything, it has been about showing up and doing the work–nothing grand or great, just the showing up and doing the work of giving voice to many on the Shore that doesn’t really have one. That is why, for good or bad, the comments section has always been open, and pretty much a free-for-all.
We would like to thank all the people that have helped us carry out this experiment over the years: Paul Plante, Charles Landis, Chaz Cornweller, Ray Otton, Sorin Varzaru, Mike Kuzma, and many other commentators.
There are some folks that don’t like rough talk though:
How much longer? Not sure, but there is a trigger that will lead to the last edition. You will know when it happens. Until then, let’s get back to work.
About the Author
I sincerely hope this isn’t the trigger because this is a great site, but it must be said.
There’s only one blight on your page and that’s the poster who felt free to stalk me and post personal info about me.
Far as I can tell there were no ramifications for that action other than you deleting my info.
In fact, that poster STILL got an editorial guest spot after the fact.
This is wrong.
You want to move forward with the CCM?
Easy, peasy.
Get control of the comments page by censoring (Yikes! Who’d a thunk I’d say that?) this one guy.
Let his political opinions stand if you must, even though nobody’s interested in those long, tedious screeds, but do not post his attacks on the other commenters. That takes care of about 90% of the “hate” issue.
There, FIXED!
Great work. Congratulations 👏👏👏👏
My congratulations also. The MIRROR is a brilliant publication whose contents far exceed the quality of our local, and many regional and national publications. I can only guess the great number of hours required to produce each weekly set of articles. I hope the MIRROR’s posts will continue for years to come!
Prune out the old wood from this great site.