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Occasionally we need to take Ponte Vedra's pulse on issues facing the community. Issues like: the Sawgrass Village shopping center redo, the county's proposed millage rate increase, or the upcoming special election to replace the late Sen. Jim King.

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We won't share your address with anyone, and won't contact you more than a few times a year, but this will give us an opportunity to guage how our readers feel about important issues and give you an opportunity to help shape The Recorder's coverage of these issues.

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Editor

I've never thought of Michael Jackson as the King of Pop. Even when he was at the pinnacle of his career, I was never more than a passing fan. I enjoyed some of his songs and thought the super-long Thriller video was a stroke of genius, but if I was spending money on music I usually spent it on someone else.

Later, when Jackson transitioned from the King of Pop to the Prince of Perpetual Weirdness, I felt no great loss, although I did pity the man who'd been deprived his childhood while fronting his family's goldmine music act.

But then, a few years ago, Michael Jackson touched my life.

My little brother has always been a hot head, and his relationship with his three sons had suffered because of his temper. He'd reached a point where they would avoid spending time with him, and he knew it.

One day he asked me to listen to "Man in the Mirror," Jackson's number one hit from 1988. My brother said he'd been listening to it and that he'd had a conversation with the man in his mirror.

I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change

My little brother must have convinced the man in his mirror -- or vice versa -- to make a change. His relationship with his sons improved immensely, and I don't remember the last time I heard him raise his voice. The last of those sons just graduated with honors from high school and all three spend a lot of time with their dad.

I wonder if we couldn't all learn something from the man in the mirror. I don't know if Michael Jackson was the King, but sometimss even a prince can teach us something.

I've Been A Victim Of A Selfish
Kind Of Love
It's Time That I Realize
That There Are Some With No
Home, Not A Nickel To Loan
Could It Be Really Me,
Pretending That They're Not
Alone?
-Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror."

The Florida Bicycle Association has released a video about the St. Johns River to the Sea Loop bicycle trail, that includes St. Johns County Commission Chairwoman Cyndi Stevenson talking about bicycle tourism and saying the Loop is important to revitalizing areas like Hastings and Palatka.

Give it a look.

I've been telling people for years that the world is safer for kids now than it was when I was growing up, but some folks are hard to convince.

I found an article today that I think all parents could learn from. Give it a read and tell me what you think.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/05/04/free_range_kids/index.html