This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I have undergone a huge change in the last couple years.

This:  As a journalist in my past, I used to love holding a newspaper in my hands and reading stories of the sort that I used to write for a daily newspaper.  That meant ink-stained hands.

But, now, in the information age, most of my newspaper reading is done via on-line sources.  And, in some ways, I hate to admit that reality, though I still value the process of remaining informed on issues of the day (see below).

My change in habits involves these news sources:

• The Oregonian newspaper

• The Wall Street Journal

• The Washington Post

• The Atlantic Magazine

• The New York Times

• The Salem Reporter

• And, once in a while for a few minutes at least, which is all it takes, the Salem Statesman-Journal.

Why the change?  Well, there are at least a few reasons.

First, the quality of some newspapers has deteriorated markedly in the past few years.  So, it’s easier, not to mention quicker, for me to read newspapers on-line than getting them delivered at my home.

No doubt it’s part of the economic risks for newspapers these days.  Especially “local” ones that have difficulty surviving.

Speaking of on-line sources, my friends at Google report this:  “In addition to sluggish ad growth, newspapers are challenged with circulation declines, a skeptical Wall Street, ownership changes — such as Knight Ridder’s recent sale of its 32 papers – and perhaps most notably, adapting to the world of on-line news.”

Second for me, I can read newspapers published in places like Washington, D.C., and New York without having to go there or waiting several days for home delivery from those far-off cities.

The range – especially between the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post – gives me a chance to reckon with the center-right perspective (the Journal) and the center left perspective (the Post).  That gives me a good sense of what could be at stake in politics and government these days.

It has not been surprising to confirm that both the center-right and the center-left have perspectives worth considering.

Regardless of how you get your news, it is an important societal responsibility for all of us to find ways to remain up-to-date on issues happening in our country, including in politics – and to do so by considering many points of view, not just our own.  For me for years, that has been newspapers.

In the Washington Post, contributing columnist Brian Broome notes this when he writes:

“I remember a time when it was considered normal and healthy to criticize the political team to which one belonged.  We didn’t take the words of any leader, regardless of party, as gospel.  And even if people in the other party had different values and cultures, it didn’t mean you had grounds for a violent showdown.

“Now, the purity tests are everywhere and something akin to a loyalty code makes it taboo to question your own side or call attention to its weaknesses and contradictions.

“We are no longer a country of give-and-take.  We are a country torn apart by something closer to religious strife, where both sides demand devotion to doctrine and rough punishments await those who step out of line.”

Well-written.  And a good way to avoid the pitfalls Broome outlines is, figuratively at least, to get ink on your hands.