Musings -- on the editor's mind

Artists and crafts people have tools of their trade and objects on which they work. It’s paint brushes, paints and canvas for painters. Plumbers take their wrenches and soldering guns to pipes.

Editors handle words, space, time and people from several angles. Only so many words can fit on a page. The words have to be accurate, telling the complete story. Being lyrical is a bonus.

Readers emphasize that local means in and around La Conner. Location is a spatial factor.

Everyone, from photographers and reporters to letter writers and the editor, faces deadlines. The goal is to send the paper to the printer by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Last week’s happenings are captured in this week’s edition, mostly. There may not be space, or the story comes in late, or initially gets missed. Timeliness, like cleanliness is the ideal, but not always realized.

Then there are people who are in the news. The most important might be your 108 year old neighbor and the 40 year old with pink flamingos on his lawn.

The paper aims to provide the facts of the day and of your community on the news pages.

This newspaper’s product, the news, is made up of words and pictures. Unless you buy the paper to wrap fish, by its very definition, the news requires thinking. And interpretation. The news is open for interpretation and editorials most definitely are. Plus, you have your own interpretaion of life. A community is about conversation and debate.

If a story of 55 days with no rain is local news, and it is, the logical step for the editor – me – is to write an editorial pointing out that a drought here requires us to make our voices heard in Olympia and Washington, D.C. Criticisms then arise that I am stepping beyond the boundaries of La Conner. But how else to address local flooding, which will come, when acting locally requires acting globally?

My editorials are my reasoned thinking and analysts Page two is set aside for opinions, including, critically, yours.