Welcome Sentinels
Today you are reading a brand new newspaper. Its not easy starting a newspaper in this day and age, where the internet rules. The Sentinel may do better given it seems to understand the importance of digital communications too. But at its heart, the Greenwich Sentinel continues a long tradition of weekly newspapers in town. You might remember some of them.
To me growing up in town, the granddaddy of the weeklies was the Village Gazettte. It was edited and published by our own Al Primo. Primo went on to earn fame for creating the eyewitness news format, which revolutionized television news in the 1960s and this format remains popular today. The Village Gazette, a less famous but beloved Primo creation, was ostensibly a paper about Old Greenwich. Its reach went far beyond and touched all of us in town.
The Greenwich Post and the Greenwich Citizen may be more familiar to many of you since they published more recently. Each of these papers had their moment but are now gone. Perhaps one day we will be talking about the Greenwich Sentinel in the past tense. As for today, the future is bright for our town’s newest weekly. The goal of the Greenwich Sentinel is to report the local news so that readers will have a full understanding of what is happening in Greenwich. Sports will be an important component as so many of our citizens and their children participate in and follow local sports.
Real estate, which is often referred to as the business of Greenwich, will get a pretty good amount of ink too. Many of our citizens have a good deal of their net worth tied up in their properties and want to know the latest trends in the real estate market.
The happenings in the schools will also be addressed. Schools are important in their own right but they also drive sports news and their success (or failure) affects real estate values.
I’m sure you will also be reading about government and my favorite topic … politics. And no doubt the social aspects of our community will be reported. The only directive I’ve been asked to adhere to is civility. I think I can do that and I am glad the Sentinel asked.
I’ve been asked to write a monthly column for (hopefully) your enjoyment. I’ve written a similar column for the last four years for the now defunct Greenwich Post, so am delighted to revive it for the Sentinel. Its hard to have been silent for the past six months so I’m happy to have my voice heard again.
My favorite topic is politics. For those who are not familiar with me, I am a conservative Republican. If you’re interested, I believe there is more about my background below. I’m not much for social issues but I am passionate about spotlighting any action by the government that leads to overspending, fiscal irresponsibility, and the wild rhetoric directed at raising taxes again and again and again on the rich people of Greenwich. Except rich seems to be an objective term. Most of us are not.
But that’s not all I will write about. At the end of the day, my passion is Greenwich. Expect to see columns about happenings in Greenwich, the joys of the season, and maybe, once in a while, a little historical perspective.
Today marks the beginning of a new era in town. The era of the Greenwich Sentinel. May it be a long era of fairness and reasonableness providing news, information and enjoyment to all of us in Greenwich.
See you next month.
Edward Dadakis is a lifelong Greenwich resident and respected leader in the Greenwich community.
