There has been a considerable influx of fresh readership to this blog in recent weeks, due I would suspect to it being mentioned several times by John DeBartola, who has quite a Facebook presence with his Revitalize Johnstown group and other efforts.
And some of you might, understandably, be a bit curious, suspecting a quid pro quo or some other manner of clandestine arrangement, the sort that our local elites prefer for their dealings.
Because I am all about transparency, allow me to provide some background, first on this blog and me, then lastly on why DeBartola keeps pitching the blog.
Some of my resume is laid out, in brief, in an early blog post. A smattering of readers have been hitting that post of late, so they are partially up to speed.
Allow me to recap, and to expand. I’ve lived in the Johnstown area all my 67 years and counting. I worked for 20-plus years at the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, in news and sports, having started in August 1974 and left in October 1994.
I moved on to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as a sports columnist and eventual Penn State beat writer. Along the way I wrote some news columns for the Greensburg editions of that newspaper, basically because the news editors there liked my writing style.
I retired early in March 2009, taking a buyout because I could financially, and also because I was tired of what newspapers were becoming, even the Tribune-Review, which had a reputation as a right-leaning publication.
My plan had been for me to stop writing for money, period. But I got sucked back in when the Johnstown paper wanted to pay to use some profile stories I’d written as a member of the Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame committee, to be run in the event program, and the newspaper beforehand to publicize the event.
Because they wanted to pay me for the stories, and because I needed to go through the paperwork to become an independent contractor for that to happen, it was offered that going forward I could write weekly sports columns for Sundays and one news column monthly for the editorial page.
I did this for several years until it, too, became tiring mentally dealing with issues other than the writing.
But I still have a lot to say, and enjoy writing, so I came up with the idea of a blog. My brother is a prolific blogger, currently something of a college women’s softball guru. I had him set up this blog and, to his surprise, I insisted on no comment opportunity for the readers.
I don’t care to debate issues with the readership. If you want to get your opinion out there, start your own blog or go to social media, which I describe as the megaphone for morons. I say that not because everyone on social media is a moron, but because a disproportionate percentage of the population there are morons who no one would pay attention to in life, were it not for social media.
There is no registration, no fees, no ads on my blog. It costs me money to keep it up on the internet, but that is fine with me.
I have met John DeBartola exactly once, a few weeks back when he was on my street collecting signatures to get on the ballot for Cambria County commissioner. I’d signed for his fellow candidate and Facebook notable Joseph Taranto a few days earlier and had given him a card with my blog information that he might peruse it.
When I saw Taranto again walking the street a few days later, I motioned to him. We talked and DeBartola later was called upon to join us in my living room, where some others signed their petitions.
It was a relatively short interaction because my wife, my son and his family, along with a high school friend of my son’s who now is a military attorney, were about to start lunch.
I was aware of DeBartola before our meeting because of me often being on Facebook (using my son’s account) to monitor marketplace for interesting cars. I’ve bought two hobby Mustangs, my wife’s daily driver, and directed my son to his wife’s daily driver via marketplace.
I have no personal Facebook account because I will not dance to Zuckerberg’s tune.
DeBartola does excellent work holding accountable local politicians, governmental groups, and the people trying to run things from the shadows.
As a former journalist, I respect his initiative and always thought I’d tell him so if I ran into him. Given the chance, I did.
During my initial meeting with Taranto, I had spoken at some length with him about the area’s strengths and weaknesses.
The outgrowth of this interaction with DeBartola and Taranto was a blog post on the pair, one not written to curry favor with them, but to enlighten the blog readership that there are people out there trying to correct perceived wrongs.
That post, and several I’ve written since about Johnstown’s problems in general, have been referred to either by DeBartola or Taranto on Facebook, bringing new readership to the blog.
As radio announcer Paul Harvey used to say in his tag line, and now you know the rest of the story.
Sam Ross Jr's site 