Help NNN Be a Better Online Neighbor

If there's one area in which the New Nebraska Network has been sorely lacking, it has been in actively participating and fostering the growth of Nebraska's still under-developed online community.

While I've never intended to be rude or dismissive to other Nebraska bloggers, I've generally been too wrapped up in whatever purposes I've had for this site to concern myself much with what's going on or being said elsewhere. But, as I've encouraged readers to contribute more to this site with their comments or with articles of their own (which are ALWAYS welcome), I've also realized a need to expand the conversation about Nebraska's future beyond this little domain to at least acknowledge the wider world of opinions in Nebraska's so-called "blogosphere."

To do so properly, however, I need your help. Later this week or early next week, I'm hoping to do a massive overhaul of the sites linked on NNNs homepage. Please consider this an open call for the names and web addresses of any sites - blogs or otherwise - written by Nebraskans or touching upon Nebraska politics.

Of course, these sites need not be so entirely focused and concerned with politics as this site is, but I do ask that they at least occasionally discuss local, state, or national issues of relevance to the NNN audience. Any nominated site should also be updated at least semi-frequently (weekly?).

If you have a site of your own that meets these criteria - or if you've come across any of note in your online travels - please post the address here or send word of it to NewNebNet@gmail.com.

I understand how hard it is to build an audience and appreciate the hard work and even the courage of anyone who's willing to contribute their voice and their opinions to the ongoing debates of who we are as a people and what we should expect from our government. I don't care how far left or how far right an author is - if they're from Nebraska and participating in these same discussions, they have a place right here at the New Nebraska Network.

As an illustration of just how serious I am about this, let me offer up this post lamenting UN Ambassador John Bolton's resignation from that position by a gentleman in Kearney who goes by the name Uncle Wiggily. I'll not be mourning Bolton's departure (1, 2, 3) and generally consider Uncle Wiggily's desire to stand with Bolton "at the gates of Armageddon" more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than any sort of praise.

Still, our anonymous author appears to be a quality writer with clear ideas to whom I look forward to directing a little more traffic no matter how much I might disagree. (Needless to say, his claim that Bolton and Donald Rumsfeld are "two of the staunchest supporters of liberty ever birthed on this planet" is one of the most ludicrous and stomach-churning I've read in months. But, in Nebraska, we can't forget there are plenty of reasonably intelligent people who remain convinced of just this sort of nonsense.)

Although unrepentant about my own liberal/progressive persuasion, there is no idea that can not be made better through seeing it from someone else's perspective. Ideas are our currency and - exchanged freely - they really can make a difference.

So, please, send me those addresses - make some nominations here - and I'll do what I can to highlight the efforts of those fine Nebraskans engaged in the same pursuit as my own. Though some may be working towards a different destination, we're all in this state and in this democracy together.

The more fully we recognize that fact, the stronger we'll all be for it.