To the editor:

Despite our challenges in 2020, this is a time to reflect on our blessings: the support our friends and neighbors have shown one another, the compassion of our health care workers, the caring of teachers trying to help young children weather a storm they can’t quite comprehend, and the courage of public servants such as police and fire and EMTs who risk their lives for us.

One of the things I am most grateful for this year is our local newspaper, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. Working under difficult circumstances, the Enterprise has kept us informed on such vitally important subjects as COVID-19 and what it’s doing in our community, and when and how to expect vaccination.

Another wonderful service the Enterprise offered us this fraught election year was printing our letters and opinion pieces. We were able to carry on a civil debate in our community, something not always possible elsewhere. And the Enterprise kept us in the real world with its fact-checking of politicians.

The first decades of this century have been some of the most difficult in our history for newspapers. Many have gone out of business or had to dramatically cut newsprint. I read earlier this year about a study showing that where local newspapers have gone out of existence, there have been larger tax increases than in towns that kept their papers. Without reporters going to village board meetings and school board meetings and reporting back to the community, we are less well informed and less able to participate effectively in local decision making. 

The Enterprise does a great job of keeping us informed and our local democracy functioning — as well as providing some wonderful local columnists for our education and enjoyment. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

Kirk Peterson

Lake Clear