Let's KEEP talking...

(And the pangs of young unrequited chicken love)

Let's KEEP talking…

I’m humbled by the response and support the PikeX relaunch received—thank you! Without question, collaboration with Delaniac allowed for an expansion of the conversation in terms of considering facts/factual news and by bringing new readers’ voices into our discussion. Very cool!

As before, if you want to skip to the fun stuff at the end, be my guest. Today, instead of a column, I’ve got the BIG NEWS FROM ROAD X: The pangs of young unrequited chicken love.

From your Relaunch responses, I am cautiously optimistic that civil real conversations online may be possible. Clearly, from the number of you who reached out privately versus publicly, this is a dubious venture at best. Our one-on-one discussions were intriguing, not only because they were thought provoking but also because I could not help but notice how much more relaxed those conversations were, which reminded me how “fraught with peril” engaging on social media has become.

Aside from how virtual discourse attempts are derailed by personal attacks and bullying, fear of “real world” retaliation is no small impediment. Violence would be an extreme repercussion but it has happened. I’m not talking about that so much as the skittishness some of us may feel at the thought of how our friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, or employers might react to what we say online because these are conversations we avoid having with them.

And that brings up another matter I thought about with all the private messages I received. Who sees what we post online? Who hears us?

Let’s deal with these questions one at a time.

The answer is to the first is probably way fewer than we imagine pay attention to what we post, just as way fewer people than we suppose pay any attention to what we do and say offline. We’re just not that fascinating, not even to our “Haters” and sadly, today it seems we’ve all got ‘em.

But that answer is complicated by the fact that we have little control over what we see in our social media timelines. Yes, we can set our “preferences” and “subscribe” but the reality is that what we see is determined by algorithms and advertising dollars, which makes it impossible to know who sees what when, if at all. And that goes for comments too. It is possible when there’s no response to a post or comment, that it’s akin to an unanswered call, text or email—so one assumes that an individual has chosen not to respond. Here’s the thing—and we all should know this by now, precisely because so many calls, texts and emails are never received—there is no guarantee that any post or comment has been seen.

All of this goes to, who hears us? We all know people who monopolize conversations in such a way it appears they just like to hear the sound of their voices. But more commonly, my experience is that people wish to be heard. And I want to make sure that two of my readers who chose to respond online know they were heard.

To Mr. Jaded About What Is News and What’s Not News:

Yes, media distrust exists because trust was broken.

And there are way too many instances to list were trust was broken, as in the Dateline case, egregiously.

I’ll get to the effect of the 24 hour news cycle and the financial motives of media outlets in a second, but first I want to ask you and all my readers, how do you choose to stay informed? Or do you choose not to?

I know many journalists, self-included, who seek to tell the truths of Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How for truths’ sake. Yes, our ability to tell whole truths may be limited by space, editorial, and media management decisions. But the majority of us take our jobs seriously. I am not trying to persuade you to drop your armor of cynicism. I simply believe that news matters in our lives and I encourage everyone to find a way to stay informed. And I know it’s more work for all of us, but we can choose to trust and verify. All journalists with integrity, and there are many, provide the means for readers to verify reporting.

Yes, the 24hr news cycle changed everything. But I say we all had a hand in that, not just greedy corporations. MTV and music videos changed everything too. Yes, everyone is competing for our attention now to make money, and while I agree there’s a great deal of manipulation in all of it, I also think that as consumers, we haven’t done ourselves any favors. If we want something different from our news or entertainment, we need to demand it, with our attention and our dollars. Am I tilting at windmills to believe any of my choices make a difference? Perhaps. But for me, holding myself accountable is just as important, or more so, than casting blame. Do not mistake me. We should take to task any governmental agencies, officials, public servants, corporations, news outlets and/or journalists that break our trust.

So again, Mr. Jaded, I hear you but I am more interested in hearing if and how you and all my readers stay informed now, how are you moving forward and navigating the world we share.

The second reader I want to make sure knows I heard her is one who was brave enough to say that “there is a distrust of media because most people still get their news from mainstream media which is so often not factual, fair or objective” and for that reason, she almost never watches traditional news outlets, preferring instead content creators that she has vetted to be fair and intelligent.

And oh I not only hear that, I GET it. But two things can be true at the same time. I work in a microcosm of “traditional media” a newspaper with 6500+ subscribers and as the News Reporter, my job is to provide factual, fair, objective reporting. I am not the only working ethical journalist in traditional/mainstream media. And my issue with content creators is that I have had difficulty verifying the information they present. Commentary and pundits’ opinions are one thing where I know it may not be able to validate accuracy and weed out misrepresentation—from all sides. But when a content creator presents facts, I expect them to provide sources…

I also want this reader to know that she has helped me re-examine my attitude towards news content creators. I am aware of their surge in popularity compared to traditional news outlets. However, in my mind, I’ve equated all of them with Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson and my distrust/opinion of them has been lower than journalists…or car salesmen. And I’ve avoided them because I thought it was too much NOISE to bother with. But if I’m willing to extend journalists/media outlets a chance to evolve regain my trust, I need to do the same and expand my horizons to make space for news content creators. I would welcome suggestions of these whom my readers have already vetted.

So now for a bit humorous news from Road X—C.C. has a crush on DelaneyKat!

Let me first introduce you to Connie Chicken, whom we affectionately call C.C. Of our 21 chickens, we have only named 5-6 chickens, all of whom have exhibited extraordinary personalities. C.C. is a 4 month old Golden Comet who has shown an unusual preference for human and feline companionship since the 2025 and 2024 flocks were integrated and thus she been allowed to free-range all day.

We think C.C. is hysterical, an absolute joy to have around and enjoy her company. I wouldn’t say the cats feel the same way. As they do most things, even us unless they want something from us, our three cats simply ignore C.C.’s presence and antics. But C.C. appears to want to be their friend. And last night with DelaneyKat, she revealed her affections may run more deeply.

We spend, when we can, Golden Hour to half an hour past sunset, in our “Summer Home.” And because all three cats typically join us, we’ve come to call that “Road X family time” and we all listen to music and watch “duck and chicken TV” until the poultry kids go to bed.

If you aren’t familiar with DelaneyKat, he’s the big lug-cat love of my life. I insist he’s big-boned but others call him tubby or worse… When friends meet our cats, they’ll call BatKat/Mommala “beautiful” and Luca “mysterious.” After two seconds with DelaneyKat and they always say, “That is one BIG mouthy cat.”

You might not believe it but he can run like a gazelle when he’s after something. But most times he meanders along on his big buffy paws. So last night, we were watching him make his way s-l-o-w-l-y to the tent, stopping every few feet to inspect a twig or sniff a blade of grass. And then we saw C.C. sneaking up trailing in his wake, as if she were tip-toeing in his footsteps. It was apparent he had no idea she was there until, about 10 feet from the door, she got close enough she coulda pecked his dupa. When he saw her, you could see how startled he was for a heartbeat, then he ran and dove into the tent as if he were trying to escape a serial killer with C.C. right on his heels. She stopped short when he leapt upon a cot, laid down, squeezed his eyes shut and played “possum” while his sides heaved in rapid panicked breathing. C.C. stood staring at him for about 30 seconds. Then she crossed to the other side of the tent and hopped up on the second cot next to where Doug was sitting and chirped and clucked away as if she were telling him all about her unrequited love woes.

Our chickens and ducks and cats make us laugh hard, often. But I gotta tell you last night’s episode was one of the funniest episodes yet.

Thanks for reading. Let’s do keep talking and I promise another Tallgrass & Tumbleweeds soon.

Until next time…

Keep your eyes on the stars and your back to the wind.