We built this city on Rock-n-Roll (winning for everybody) 2.15.02

Don't mind me, I'm just a little on the randy side today after a stunning quasi-victory in Des Moines last week when my "corporal punishment" or "beat on the brat" column garnered for me (and by extention the Nonpareil and all C.B.-ers) a second place Master Columnist Award in the Iowa Newspaper Association's annual competition.
Nonpareil photographer Scott Berger got First Place in the Best Feature Photo category. Much celebrating was to be had in the hotel bar of the downtown Des Moines Marriott that night I can tell you. Newspaper people like to drink and a good excuse makes the drinking more fun, celebratory and guilt free.
Monday's papers across the state were full of tales of glory as tooters blew their own horns. "First in this, second in that," they cried in humble fonts. "The judges said we rocked because blah, blah, blah."
And why not? "If you do not blow your own horn, as my sainted grandmother used to say, "don't expect anyone else to blow it either. Then again nobody likes a bragger now cut my toenials!" Good times.
Thankfully, mentioning one's awards, compliments, kudos and "attaboys" don't count as bragging until they make up at least 75 percent of one's repetoire. But that's life in the Midwest for you.
In less pent up and frustrated parts of the world, "doing things" is not considered hubris. The Lord did not start smiting people for pride until they moved to the Central Plains states; before that, if you were smote, it was most likely for sodomy or issues related to paganism. So it goes.
It was a proud night for me and mine and I'll tell you why. I did not have to come home after college and work at my home town paper. I had other offers and "sure things" for more money. Had I waited a while longer, more offers would have presented themselves. When you can write, design, layout pages and edit, the world is your oyster or at least your stuffed pork chop.
The truth is, I work at the Nonpareil because I chose the Nonpareil over everything else. I chose to come home and apply my efforts where I grew up, where my family lives, where my roots are. Sure, I could have made more elsewhere, but I believed and still believe to this day (though faith has a way of waxing and waning on occasion) that I made the right choice. Not the most convenient one, not the most profitable one, not the coolest choice and not the easy one, I assure you.
For while I believe we should all put our best efforts into our community, that sentiment is not always shared and that is frustrating. Council Bluffs has a problem believing in itself and I want to see that problem eradicated.
It IS possible to improve one's station through force of will. If you believe, things can happen.
Piddly little things can stop will dead in its tracks, things like small-mindedness, apathy, pre-judgment and, worst of all, bullheaded determination to see that nothing and no one else gets the chance to have something you yourself are not willing to go after.
I love Council Bluffs. I love the people I meet every day, the ones I turned into characters in little college plays including a full-length play I called "Last Chance" that won a Commendation for Excellence in Playwriting from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. That wasn't just my award, that was our award and this isn't schmooz. When the Ames Tribune arts and entertainment editor asked me where I "got my ideas" I told her "I'm from Council Bluffs and when I need dialogue I just think about conversations I heard growing up at diners, in school, at garages, junkyards or grocery stores and I type as fast as I can."
So when I tell you about the things I did and do and still want to accomplish, you will forgive me if I seem to be overreaching myself, but no one ever knows exactly how far they CAN reach until they have reached too far.
With that said, I've got my Blackjack Gum, my Wild Cherry Pepsi and I'm ready to pump up the volume.
Lately, I've been noticing something disturbing to me. Maybe you haven't thought about it and if I bring it up maybe you will agree or disagree. No harm done either way.
Frankly, it irritates me to go into Council Bluffs restaurants, bars, delis, coffee shops and other busineses and not see a Nonpareil in the newspaper rack where the Omaha World-Herald or some other non-local paper is.
I talk to people like Deb Danielsen who is renovating her historic Council Bluffs home, the Wickham-DeVol house, for $1.2 million dollars. That is not just for her but for all of us. That's money she could have sunk into the stock market and used to moved to Key West but she stayed and spent her money and her effort here.
So it galls me to know the average burger joint, coffee house and cafe won't spend $10.25 a month to support the local paper. They give that cash to the World-Herald or USAToday or some other paper that has no vested interest in our community.
You are fine. You're reading your paper right now and thanks for that. But I have an idea and it just might be crazy enough to work. The next time you go to a restaurant, bar or ANY business that offers newspapers for its customers and your hometown Nonpareil is NOT one of them, ask them why? Ask them to carry it. Ask them if they would like you to take your business across the river or to a business that has enough pride in Council Bluffs to invest $10.25 out of its monthy budget.
This isn't just for me. This isn't for my "job security" nor is it some cheap ploy to boost circulation. I'm no corporate shil. I don't do enough things for money, honestly, but this isn't one of them.
Do this for your town. Do it for pride's sake, not the bragging kind, but the basic kind that makes you get out of bed every day.
Because we could all just move away to some other city or state that's cool, prosperous and entertaining 24 hours a day. It takes people with true grit like us to stay put and build that city ourselves.