BY KARENLYN BARONE
I love the residents who send me in their wedding and birth announcements, their anniversary information, promotions, memorials and family milestones. That's what a community newspaper is all about. I want to hear from you when your son graduates from basic training or your daughter donates her hair to charity. We want to see the photos and share in your joy, and I do try to print every one. If something wonderful happens that affects you, then essentially it affects us all as a community. After all, we are neighbors, and sharing is what neighbors do.
Please continue to tell me about a friend of yours who is special, gifted or especially giving. Chances are, if you think his or her story is worthy, we will, too. Through features like that, I have met the most incredible souls, like the angel baby and the businessman who benefited from your blood drives and the little boy with cystic fibrosis who walks every year, crawling closer to a cure.
Ours is a lively paper, and I don't need to encourage letters to the editor, because they seem to pour in. That's good. It means people are listening, it means they care enough to have an opinion and they are forthright enough to share it. Follow our guidelines and your letter will appear. One of the greatest things we do is provide a forum for your voice. Trust me, your neighbors read those letters, and your opinion - which you are unalienably entitled to - will be heard.
As a newspaper, we cover your controversies and your calamities. We bring as much information to you as space and time permit, in the scope of a community ledger. On a weekly basis, my reporter and I do the absolute best we can. Are we perfect? Nah. Will we always make you happy? That would be impossible. But please, save the name-calling and negativity. It's wasted on me. I'm just the editor, the lowly deliverer of news. I neither orchestrate nor alter it. Nevertheless, contrary to your calls, I am not a fascist, a committee front man (my personal favorite) nor a mouthpiece for the party that opposes you. In this realm, my job is simple. I merely care that both sides to an issue are represented - not which one triumphs.
At this time of year, when the nation pauses to give thanks, editors are no different. I thank all of you who make my job the incredible field of learning it is. To the mayors and the boards of the villages I cover, to the merchants and the fraternal organizations, to the schools and places of worship, to all the residents, thank you. You are reflected in every story I write and every photograph I print. You humble me with your participation in this, your community newspaper.
