Guest Editorial by Dr. David Potter President, Delta State University

The Delta is a wonderfully oral culture. Words travel fast and furiously among people, ensuring that some forms of local news are communicated effectively. We are particularly adroit at sharing information on geography and genealogy. Think of how many conversations start with "where are you from" and "who's your family?" Once these two sets of facts are learned about someone, we know a lot about that individual and can "place" them.

The answers to these questions trigger a wealth of additional, contextual information that long-term Delta residents accumulate, draw upon and use, often in the form of stories. And this contextual material gets richer all the time. Our "private" lives are grist for the conversational (rumor?) mill, whether normal or scandalous. And the range of this knowledge is broad—"Sharon's from Greenville, and her daddy's a farmer. She married John from Clarksdale, cousin to Jim from Marks, and their family had the funeral business for years..."

A marvelous network of relationships is revealed in these personal histories, a web of social and cultural ties that make us truly a region. Our history gets retold and personalized all along the pathways of these conversations. It's part of the delight of living here.

Public information seems to follow a different path. It often is shared within groups only—those we see every day, fellow citizens of our own community, people from our social class, folks "like us." Our knowledge of "others" is limited at best, based only on stereotypes or fueled by rivalries at worst. Of course, some of this is to be expected as we lead our busy lives. It is difficult to keep up with our own agendas, let alone learn about others'.

But these gaps in knowledge do have consequences, some practical, some more insidious. And they may contribute to our difficulties in taking advantage of our uniqueness as a people with a strong regional identity. To take a practical example, several Delta towns sponsor each year their own blues events-festivals, awards programs, concerts. Several also have organizations or institutions celebrating this aspect of our heritage-museums, exhibitions, collections. The dream of each town is to capture the market for blues tourism.

The result is a competition, which can of course be healthy, but which also can involve protecting information about plans and ideas from others. Each of our communities might instead benefit more from a collaborative approach to capitalize on this valued tradition. A coordinated annual series of blues events might draw people into the Delta and encourage them to visit all our towns featuring this attraction in turn. We might substitute synergy for fragmentation.

Our desire to attract new business and industry often takes a similar tack, towns competing aggressively with each other. This is certainly understandable. Each of us wants to live in a vibrant, healthy community. But the competition can turn us against each other, and even diminish the chances that any of us will achieve our ambition. At times it might be preferable to work on behalf of each other, to ensure that a particular enterprise is at least located somewhere in the Delta.

Limited communication across community lines may restrict progress in other ways as well. Our diversity can be an asset, but its promise is unfulfilled when we fail to reach out to each other and find ways to talk across racial boundaries. We need structures and opportunities to build bridges, to share information rather than rely on outdated or unsubstantiated ideas about each other.

I applaud the efforts of Coopwood Communications to serve as a voice for region-wide dialogue and information-sharing. We need to know what each other is doing, and the Bullet is an innovative and promising way to learn what is happening around our immediate region. Hopefully, that knowledge will promote a broader base of interaction among us, enhance our support for and involvement with each other. If so, it can strengthen the Delta as both a private and a public place of impressive richness.