The Town Voice
What It Is
A Mission Statement
The primary function of “The Town Voice” is news analysis. It is an important fuction to understand the world beyond the immediate circle of family, workplace, and close friends. It is especially important for voters.
Many people, especially Americans, dislike being told what to think, or at least they claim to do their own critical analysis. Well established news agencies often advertise that they just report events, not what anyone should think about them.
Likewise it is not the purpose of The Town Voice to dictate to anyone what to think about stories in the news. Rather it is merely to serve as a forum for comparing what people in various established disciplines think about news stories. Sunday morning news talk shows often have a “panel” of people with various journalistic credentials who examine news stories in the light of their tests of truth and past news stories. The function of The Town Voice is to remind readers of the numerous tests of truth that might apply to stories. In the end, for better or for worse, it is the voters who will decide in a democracy.
Much news everywhere, but especially on social media lately, is in a “this-is-you” style where one group attempts to characterize what other groups are “really” saying. The practice has given politics a disturbingly adversarial aspect. Political parties do not do well as adversaries. Rather they do well as an assembly of various people with a common goal to live in peace.
There shouldn’t be a “war” between political parties, but there is. There shouldn’t be a “war” between science and religion, but there is. Another way to describe the problem is “too many fighters and not enough thinkers.” Too many people believe the world will finally be a better place once the other political party is totally eliminated, as though any political party is the only problem. Too many people believe the world will finally be a better place once religion eliminates science or science totally eliminates religion, as though either science or religion has all the answers anyone needs.
The purpose of the news analysis on The Town Voice is to help people recognize that groups beyond their own often merit serious consideration. The political parties probably work best when they consider both the rich and poor, the highly educated and the newcomers, the males and the females, this and that skin color, and other differences that can become problems if they are not understood. Religion and science should not try to eliminate each other because well schooled religion and well schooled science each have important contributions to make to society the other does not do so well.
The Town Voice is actually two websites with the same primary function, thetownvoice.net and thetownvoice.com both for news analysis, both with the same management.
The “.net” webite has been available for many years and its mission statement is similat to this one. That mission statement page is over ten years old, but you can still read it here. Perhaps the problem is more obvious now. Perhaps it can be said, “We told you so.”
The “.com” website is new August, 2026 and is much more interactive having much “blog” software. Anyone on the internet should be able to post their comments on the articles here. They will be asked for three things in addition to their comment; a name, an email address, and a website. The website is not required, but if you have a website and wish to include it you can. The email address will not be made available to the public, but the site software might quietly send an email there to check whether permission was given to use that address. There is no practical way to establish whether the name you use is “really” your name. It is recommended most people not use a name that could too easily invite trouble. Use a nickname instead. People with a more “public” life and prepared for those difficulties of a public life can be as open about their name as they deem fitting.
The public is not allowed to initiate their own articles, but can apply for and be granted user “roles” on the site like author, contributor, or subscriber with various abilities to initiate articles or adjust your profile.