I have had and still have reasons for being critical of district 2 City Council Candidate Ryan Shell, but damn if he isn't the one who is finally showing sleepy ol' Greensboro how representation, advocacy and internet communications can work in the hands of an unafraid and committed candidate.
I am not saying that future candidates and elected officials should be media mavens, although writing a blog and posting video to YouTube are no more complicated than dialing the phone; and I'm not saying that internet communications should replace on-the-ground interactions (which Shell does as well). What I am saying is that modern communications tools put great power into the hands of an individual--power that, for a while now, some of us have been saying could be used to great benefit of local governance. Shell is showing the way.
[Note: To those candidates whose "advisers," in their infinite backwards wisdom, have told you not to blog or, worse, to stop blogging, they are tethering you to the past. That has had appeal in Greensboro, it won't continue much longer. The future is here.]
[Update: The above is not to diminish the use of the web for advocacy as now-district 1 candidate Ben Holder has before becoming a candidate nor to dismiss the (locally) ground-breaking blogging of former councilor Sandy Carmany, but Ryan is bringing it together in way that no candidate has yet.]
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