Sirs, I think your online newspaper is just a happy feely info site. You are not addressing the issues that are important to Suffern residents. We want a debate between the candidates for Mayor, Mayor says he won't debate, where's your story about that? I could go on and on, but I'll spare you. I think I made my point. You are not practicing journalism. You basically have a list of events, some info about Suffern High helping it's students{isn't that what their supposed to do} and thats about it. How about delving into what's really happening here in The Village. The citizens need a place to look for information about Village issues important to all residents. I hope you will consider what I am saying, Respectfully, Jeff Genser.

Mr. Genser, Thank you for your email, we always sincerely appreciate feedback and other people’s points of view even when they differ from our own.

I will address each point that was raised in the order in which it was presented in the email.

We aren’t running an online newspaper.  There is no ‘paper’ here and for good reason.  Many large newspapers are going out of business as our connected society goes online via computers, smart phones, Kindle and other devices for news and information.  The traditional model seems to be failing.  Not publishing and printing a “paper” is also as environmentally friendly and ‘Green’ as possible.  We are running a community news and information site.

I’d like to thank Mr. Genser for the ‘happy feely info site’ comment.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with building up people and building up our community.  In a society where sensationalized crash and burn spectacles reign supreme, and the adage “If it bleeds it leads” seems to drive network news, keeping things as positive and cordial as possible is a tougher and possibly a less profitable path to follow.  We started with a few hundred emails of friends, family and neighbors back in April and now four months later we have more than 22,000 email subscribers.  Clearly many people like what we are doing and this thing’s got legs.  Our fixed costs are low by design and we plan to be around for a very long time.  Perhaps if we attacked people, went negative, sensationalized things and threw our weight around we’d be up to 44,000 email subscribers but that isn’t going to happen here.  

We strive to provide “Community Journalism”. ‘Community’ is broadly defined but in essence we feel that we all live in the same geographic area with a common purpose—to make our community better.  I realize that people have different ideas and opinions as to what constitutes making our community better, but naïve or not, I’d like to think that this is the common goal shared by most of our neighbors.

In addressing the next few issues raised by Mr. Genser, I have a few questions of my own:

He wrote: “You are not addressing the issues that are important to Suffern residents.”  Mr. Genser in your opinion, what exactly are the issues important to the people of Suffern?  Write about your opinions and the issues you think are most important, follow our five simple rules and we’d be happy to publish your articles.  I have my own opinion of what these issues are but why should people be subjected to only my opinions or the opinions of Ramapo Times?  I don’t believe that just because I own Ramapo Times that I have the right to bully people, impose only my own ideas on people or decide what issues get addressed or discussed.  Help us out here just a little folks. 

“We want a debate between the candidates for Mayor”   I’d like to know; who exactly is the ‘We” he refers to?

I too thought that a debate was a good idea and in fact proposed two separate debates: One debate for the candidates for Mayor and a second debate for the candidates for Trustee.  Ramapo Times was willing to sponsor and moderate fair and impartial debates.  One candidate for mayor, Trustee Dagan LaCorte, accepted our invitation.  Mayor John Keegan declined our invitation.  

I may not be the brightest bulb on the tree but I do know that at least two parties are required in order to host a meaningful debate.  As a result of having only one participant, we dropped the idea and in my opinion there wasn’t anything to report.  The public wasn’t aware that we’d proposed a debate so why cover something that wasn’t going anywhere?  “The Debate You Didn’t Know Anything About isn’t Going to Happen” does not make for a good headline.  I supposed I could have ambushed the candidates by floating the idea in Ramapo Times first and then proposing the debate.  Perhaps I’ll save that tactic for another time; then again, maybe I won’t.  

It would appear from the tone of Mr. Genser’s email, that he expected Ramapo Times to “Call Out” Mayor Keegan or perhaps take him to task because we didn’t get what we asked for and apparently he didn’t get what he wanted either.  That is not how we operate and we stated that on our website from day one.  Mr. Genser if you are so inclined to do so, please visit the ‘About Us’ page and the ‘Submit News’ page.  It would however, appear that his email has accomplished the goal of having Mayor Keegan “Called Out.”  I support Mr. Genser’s right to his opinion and his right to freedom of speech so I felt compelled to publish his letter. That said, I can’t make Mayor Keegan or anyone else debate or do anything else that they don’t want to do; nor for that matter can I make Mr. Genser read our guidelines or read and understand the headline he mentioned about “Suffern High” but I’ll get to that issue in short order as well. 

I asked a question requiring a yes or no answer and was prepared to accept either response.  I received a ‘no’ and I moved on.  We all want things.  Unfortunately we don’t always get everything we want.  I may start a blog where I whine about all of the things that I want but don’t yet have and see how it goes.  

I received Mr. Genser’s email Friday afternoon and knowing that I was going to publish it, I spoke with Mayor Keegan during the intermission of The Clifford Theater’s production of High School Musical 2.  (Great performance by the way but even wealthy, spoiled Sharpay didn’t get everything she wanted.) I asked Mayor Keegan specifically why he didn’t want to debate and his answer was as follows: “I don’t believe that Democrats should debate Democrats.  I think it divides the party and at the end of the day we are all Democrats.” 

Both Mr. LaCorte and Mayor Keegan are entitled to their own opinions and beliefs.  I also believe that the people of Suffern are entitled to form their own opinions as well.  By not writing about the fact that there wasn’t going to be a debate I wasn’t choosing sides.  In fact yesterday I received an email demanding “Equal Treatment” because we published Dagan LaCorte’s bio.  I informed this person that we had asked for bio’s from all candidates, that they were being worked on and as soon as we received bio’s from other candidates we would upload them up as well.  Interestingly enough, complaints, attacks, accusations and support for both candidates for Suffern Mayor sent to Ramapo Times are running about neck and neck.  People have strong opinions but we won’t publish attacks, anonymous or otherwise, about anyone. 

Moving right along to the next point:  “I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.”  Thank you for sparing us but really, that isn’t necessary.  Mr. Genser, if you have something to say, by all means say it.  We have five simple rules and I believe that they are clearly stated on our website.  To paraphrase: 

1. Tell us who you are
2. Keep it clean
3. Keep it fair
4. Keep it honest
5. Keep subjective personal attacks to yourself 

Follow the rules, get published.  Community Journalism “By our Community, for our Community” means exactly that.  The Community is welcome to and is in fact encouraged to submit stories and articles for publication.  We don’t censor and we don’t edit, we ask that people follow the aforementioned rules.  

During the almost four months we’ve been in business, we have received a number of articles that did not follow our simple rules.  We replied to each author and included our rules.  They chose not to comply—their right and their decision, we chose not to publish—our right and our decision.  A number of these articles were well written and addressed some important issues but their authors did not tell us who they are.  Anonymity is not an option here.  If you have something to say, if you have an issue, attack the issue, not the individual and be a big enough person to identify yourself.  Mr. Genser did, we appreciate it and we’ve published his letter.  Other articles contained subjective personal attacks aimed at individuals or Village and Town departments.  We may or may not have agreed with the content but again, we have simple, unobtrusive rules.  Again, we’re not operating a bully pulpit here to present our point of view, we go to great lengths to be neutral on most things.  If we have an opinion we make it known that it is our opinion.  We strongly feel that we have a responsibility to our Community so although we won’t support personal attacks on others, we have no problem publishing criticism about our website and our decisions. 

Many others have contacted us with complaints or “ideas” for us to follow up on.  In almost every case, these people have had their own agenda—which is fine.  We’ve sent them our rules and encouraged them to write the story and submit it for publication and yet most people do not take action.  Again, kudos to Jeff Genser for having done so here.

In less than four short months we have received complaints and attacks about almost every department in Suffern with the exception of the Recreation Department and the Village Clerk.  We’ve received complaints about the Ramapo Police Department, The Town of Ramapo, Villages of Airmont, Montebello, Monsey, Spring Valley, Hillcrest, Hillburn and Sloatsburg and yet it seems as if nobody wants to stand up and address the issues; most people want to stir the pot and run and hide.  Interestingly enough, we’ve even received a small number of complaints about a few volunteer fire departments.  I guess there’s nothing quite like picking on volunteers who put their lives on the line for others for FREE.  The true measure of a man (or woman) is what they do when they think nobody is watching. 

Mr. Genser is correct, I am not a journalist by training and I am learning the ropes.  The lead writer for Ramapo Times is a journalist with more than 20 years experience.  In addition to working for traditional newspapers, he spent the past eight years as a staff reporter for MLB.com and currently appears each week on television in Philadelphia covering the Phillies farm system.  We may not be producing what people are used to seeing in traditional media and Mr. Genser is entitled to his opinion, but I have a real journalist on staff and if all goes according to plan, I will soon have people expressing their opinions & issues in a constructive manner and young people in our community writing (not texting lol) about the world around them from their own point of view. 

Mr. Genser is also correct in that we do include a list of events and we write about them.  We choose to devote space to build people, events and businesses in our community up. 

The article about “Suffern High helping it's students{isn't that what their supposed to do}” is actually about The Suffern Free Library taking a proactive approach to help Suffern High School students prepare for college.  I believe that this is clearly stated and is abundantly apparent to those who choose to simply read the headline.  There is even more detail available to those who actually have an interest in the subject matter and take the time to read the article.  I don’t believe that the Suffern Free Library is ‘supposed to’ help students to prepare for college.  I do think that it’s commendable that the Library does a great job in serving a large, diverse population.  

We publish information provided by The Town of Ramapo, Suffern Free Library, Suffern Police Department, The Rockland County Legislature and others.  We would love to hear from every volunteer fire department, we’d love to get more information from every village in Ramapo and have more articles submitted; all that we ask is that our five simple rules be followed.

Isabel Haggerty has sent us commentary.  We may or may not agree with her on every issue but we publish what she sends because she attacks the issues that are important to her, she doesn’t attack the individual(s).  Martyn Ryan recently sent us some commentary on water issues that affect Rockland County, he followed our rules and we put it online. 

Mr. Genser, as a member of this community who clearly has some well defined opinions, I invite you and every reader of Ramapo Times to step up, submit as many articles as you like and encourage others to do the same.  Attack the issues and not the individuals and I will see that they are published.