Editorial: The Gazette: A sense of purpose

Mission Hill and the Longwood Medical and Academic Area have improved dramatically over the past 20 years since the Gazette debuted, and it has been the Gazette’s honor to be a partner in that. We look forward to being your voice for the next 20 years and beyond.

When the first issue of the Gazette hit the streets in April 1993, it contained an editorial statement of purpose. We can’t improve on it, so we will simply recommit ourselves to it. It read as follows:

Information is power. The power to dispel rumors and misconceptions, the power to give voice to hopes and dreams, the power to set an idea into motion.

The basic purpose of the Mission Hill Gazette is to provide information in a balanced and respectful manner that opens discussion and rustles the leaves of opinion much like the spring breezes that will, we hope, accompany our premiere issue.

The soul of a neighborhood is its people in all their varied forms of expression, passion, prejudices and pride.

The people of Mission Hill and the Longwood Medical Area will the sources and guides to the information the Gazette publishes.

Mission Hill is a diverse neighborhood, bursting with healthy contrasts. An easy, but myopic, way to describe differences among people, ideas and institutions is to turn those contrasts into conflict. And conflicts, fed in part by isolation, give birth to fear.

The Gazette respects and celebrates the diversity of the neighborhood. We will not back down from any story, but we will not promote divisiveness, either.

Information is the sworn enemy of fear. We hope over the months and years that the information we provide tears down walls and gives the community a voice to pierce the silence of isolation.

We hope to overcome fear with openness and sincerity. In order to achieve these goals, we need your help. We are here to listen.

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