Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant". Anyone who has been doing their spring cleaning can attest to that. When you turn over a rock, sunlight makes all the bugs underneath run for another dark hiding place. Well, this county has had a dark blue cloud hanging over it for too long now.

This blog was started, in part, as a test. To see if anyone would notice.

Another reason to begin a blog like this is that there seems to be a hole--a gaping hole--in Williamson County. No, not the obvious holes where the new highways and toll roads are being placed. The hole is, as the blog’s title implies, a lack of media presence keeping an "eye" on those in power in Williamson County. They--our elected officials--are not being held accountable. They are not hearing an opposing voice. I have lived in and around this county for almost 27 years, and many things have changed, some for the better, some for the worse. I won't bore you with a litany of those changes, but for me the most glaring is the now-Republican domination of the county, which in many ways mirrors that of the state of Texas.

In 2003, when the now-infamous corrupt DeLay redistricting fiasco was being force-fed to us, I decided to investigate the state of the opposition in the county. What I found was a party in the beginning stages of rising from the ashes. The first thing a person always says, myself included, when they walk into a Williamson County Democratic Party (WCDP) meeting is, "I didn't know there were Democrats in Williamson County!" a phrase which crossed my mind as the name for this blog. But after a person says those words you can kind of see or sense in them a satisfaction that they know they're not alone anymore. These people and their hard work are what was responsible for the gains alluded to by Off The Kuff on Thursday:

Don't know who's behind this new blog from Williamson County, but I'm glad to see one from there. Williamson, like Fort Bend, voted for Bush in lesser numbers in 2004 than it did in 2000, and I think it stands a chance of being competitive for Democrats in a couple of cycles. I hope this blog will help me get a little more insight on it.

So do I. In the grand scheme of things, this blog may not mean much. Hopefully, we can learn more about new technologies such as blogs and wikis that are available, and use them to our advantage. Also, maybe this can be the start of an ever-broadening conversation about what is happening in Williamson County.

A blog is a free and easily accessible way to shine some light and disseminate information. It is not a static form or forum. In six months, this may be a completely different entity. I do not intend this to be solely my blog and my words and opinions. I hope, as I said before, that it will become a conversation among those of us in the county with a different point of view from those currently in power. I encourage comments and suggestions, good or bad. I encourage others to submit their opinions or pertinent items to post on the blog. Everyone's participation is welcome. So send me an e-mail or make a comment and let the sun shine in!