COMMENTARY

By Buddy Roberts

Commentary, my editor called it.

Looking back, it seems a bit grandiose, but at the time I was a 16-year-old kid and thrilled out of my mind to have my name and picture on a newspaper column with such a grown-up and professional-sounding title.

My first hard-hitting offering addressed the controversial topic of time. It took a cold, tough look at how difficult it can be to get things done, blew the lid off of the proliferation of hectic schedules, and drew the reader to the profound conclusion that people surely are busy these days.

Hardly an auspicious beginning. Good thing for me I was working for and learning from Tommy Toles, the finest editor ever to hold a press card. The Chief gave me my first professional break, and as I grew up in the business under his tutelage, Commentary grew up with me. The topics gradually changed from music, movies, and high school antics to foreign policy, public education, federal funding for the arts, allegations of scandalous doings in the state prison system, and various and sundry political and social issues. It was a gas, and Commentary was ultimately the recipient of four professional awards.

The Chief moved on, and, later, so did I, eventually to Chattanooga, Tenn., to develop The Post, a neat little publication that deserved to live longer than it was allowed to. Each of the editors involved in production had a column on the editorial page, but I decided not to call mine Commentary. It just didn’t seem right. New town, new paper…I needed a new column head.

Trouble was, my supervising editor and I could never agree on what to call it. He thought my choice was too avant-garde, I thought his suggestions were too benign, and my column rarely appeared under the same heading twice while we tried to come up with a mutually-agreeable title. It never happened. And never really mattered, because The Post had barely marked six months of publication before it died as the result of acute corporate-level stupidity.

But that’s another story. Here I am now with Birmingham Profile, an electronic publication that we hope will serve as something of a storybook about the Magic City and the people, businesses, and attractions that make the Birmingham area a great place to live. It’s been in development for some time, and we hope you’ll think it’s worth the effort. I know I do.

And I knew, from stage one of development, that I’d bring Commentary back. It’s probably silly, but launching Birmingham Profile had made me feel that I’ve come full circle, back to the enthusiasm I had when I started out in the business 21 years ago. Commentary reminds me of the old days, and it’s a tip of my hat to The Chief. I owe him far more than that.

Do not, however, expect Commentary to completely live up to its name these days. The topics won’t be heavy—no scandals, exposes, or investigative reports. It will simply be another avenue, a different style for telling stories. My stories, other people’s stories…we’re just going to have fun with it. Which is what Birmingham Profile is all about.

It’s been said that good stories last longer than technology (which I firmly believe and for which I'm thankful), but we’ll still see what we can do to preserve a few in electronic form. And hopefully we’ll all have a good time in the process. Thank you for joining us.