"American democracy is suffering because its citizens no longer talk about the important issues," said David Burton, civic communication specialist at the University Outreach and Extension News headquartered in Springfield.

He couldn't have summed up better the main purpose of The Joplin Independent, as a conduit to allow purposeful discussion amongst agreeing and dissenting parties and in part to publicize issues that might not be given attention in the mainstream press.

We are pleased that our website has attracted national and international attention. We hope that local people, too, will continue to take advantage of the opportunity to publicize their events and express their ideas.

There's no hope for a better tomorrow if citizens aren't concerned with the issues of today. We hope we are part of an open dialogue, allowing facts to be presented on all sides, until a suitable solution might be made...especially by the lawgivers who regularly visit our site.

There no doubt are many factors as to why newspaper circulation figures are dropping. But there should be little disagreement that the Internet is growing in popularity as a source of information. Where the print media puts an interpreter in between the news and the reader, the Internet provides the opportunity to read directly from the horse's mouth and to search for the truth...as incredibly difficult as that may seem.

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