Tuesday, May 26, 2009

I wanted to know ...

I was attending a neighborhood meeting in the Arcadia area of Phoenix recently and got to wondering why people are okay with speaking out about something they don't like, but don't seem okay about finding out more about it from the horse's mouth.

District 6 Councilman Sal DiCiccio held a neighborhood forum on the Phoenix Goddess Temple http://www.phoenixgoddesstemple.org because neighbors were concerned this group would be disruptive to the neighborhood. Whispered throughout the audience were accusations of prostitution. Whether the Female Goddess-centered group is a religion or not is for others to decide, but when one of the goddesses stood up and said she would be happy to explain what goes on at the temple and explain that it isn't prostitution, no one wanted to know.

Hmmm. Here's someone openly confronting what people are whispering about, yet no one took her up on her offer of explanation. Why?

I'm looking to do a story on NIMBY's and what power they have in bringing things into their neighborhood or kicking them out. Earlier in the year, not too far from the temporary Goddess Temple site, neighbors were up in arms when they thought the Church of Scientology was turning a one-time home of L. Ron Hubbard's into a museum.

Wonder what else neighbors in that particular area have objected to? Will be looking into that story.

Stay tuned.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Faith Matters

I make my living freelancing so I'll be pitching stories to various publications. However, if I don't get a taker on a story, I'll likely post the story here.

Please let me know what you'd be interested in reading about. I'll look into it and blog outright on some subjects, while doing full reporting on others. When stories get published, I'll post links.

I look forward to serving you, the reader.