We aim to innovate

Published 2:08 pm Monday, January 31, 2011

I listened carefully this week when President Obama made his State of the Union Address.

One statement in particular caught my attention and I kept coming back to it.

He said, “We are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook, In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives. It’s how we make a living.”

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That line right there – “In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives. It’s how we make our living.”

Last week we did a little innovating right here at the Bulletin and launched our newly redesigned website. Overall the response has been very positive but there were a few readers who were upset by the change. One gentleman asked me just who I thought I was changing the website.

Our intention was not to upset anyone, and I regret he was not happy. His comment did make me stop and think – did I do the right thing? Should we have redesigned the website?

The majority of our readers responded very positively to the redesigned site, so I can answer with a resounding yes. It was a good move. We did it with the intention of making it user friendly, easier to read and available to everyone. While it’s still a work in progress, we have accomplished those three goals.

We must all look forward and continue to try and do better. Sure we will make mistakes and stumble along the way and we won’t make everyone happy. But if we don’t try we are sure to be left behind in this ever-changing world.

America is built on innovation and doing things better. We don’t wait for it to come to us, we create it. American’s, just simply put, do it better..

Betty Ramsey is the publisher of the Tryon Daily Bulletin. Her email address is betty.ramsey@tryondailybulletin.com.