Happy Birthday Penn Square Post and Press!

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I almost missed it. It was one year ago today I put up the first piece for the Penn Square Post and Press. There was much worrying then about what I was getting in to. I didn’t know many bloggers. Sites I researched seemed very personal and specialized. Some seemed to specialize in bloviating. Others put up pictures. I wanted to make a significant contribution without becoming a pest and felt my on-going work in Health Care and Health Policy was the best avenue. Was this smart?

I worried that most Americans still did not understand the PPACA (Obamacare) and the pressing need for positive action on continued reform. Supreme Court action was in the future and uncertain. There was a national election in a year, and I was concerned at the strange assortment of ‘political birds’ collecting on the wire to contest the Republican Presidential nomination, They seemed to be focused on an array of things that made me think they were misreading the public mood.

Macedonia

A year and a ruling and an election later, we have put up 172 posts and published one book. I am particularly grateful to the always thought-provoking Dan Walker who is doing wonderful film reviews, a field I felt was slipping into glorified cheer-leading, the humane and wise Dr. Krikor Deramerian who has made several significant contributions in medicine, the invisible-man-on-the-aisle Curtis Rittenhouse writing periodically on Music, and ever-reliable Katie Walsh giving staff support. I’d also like to thank my family, Kathy, Brian, Calvin, Sam and Janet who have contributed criticism, suggestions and patience. And I need to thank my friends at the Mayes School of Health Policy/USP in Philadelphia whose discussions spur thought and eventually articles.

We have had readers from all over the world: Russia, Kenya, China, Australia, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Philippines, Macedonia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Venezuela, India, Lebanon, Singapore, Jordan, New Zealand, Thailand, Croatia and many, many others. That in itself is humbling. Next year, Marie Byrd Land.

D.T. Barton’s thriller Final Cut is available in print and on e-version. We wish more people would read it, but those who have say kind things. Posted reviews have been laudatory. We are working with several new authors.

You yourself can help the Press by ‘liking’ us on Facebook and getting a friend who is tired of the conventional wisdom and mindless chatter that passes by daily to do the same. We are still doing battle with the comment challenge of blocking spam but trying to make commentary as user-friendly as possible. Typos and small publishing glitches also make life more interesting from time to time. Several unprintable words have been uttered, even today as adding a picture wipes out the entire text.

We will be looking at a site upgrade and adding more contributors as go over the cliff or whatever prominence Fate and Congress has in store for us. adding more writers and trying to enter the public discourse. Thanks for staying with us, and the best to you this holiday season.

Tom

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