Historical April–May 2020 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Our team has been looking forward to this issue for a long time.
We discussed ideas and format and COLOR months ago – and then the world changed.
As a newcomer to this endeavor I still want to take the time to thank the many people who have kept this paper alive for 50 years. Although a neighborhood paper, I think it is a valuable resource for information, and humor, and community.
The people who contribute to this paper take it seriously and do their utmost to provide accurate, timely, and entertaining information that affects our little world.
It is in that vein that I want to take an opportunity in this unprecedented (I have been using that word SO much in the past three years) time to think about why we bother with this paper. Our neighborhood has been through some unsettled and trying times, and a group of invested neighbors volunteered their efforts to ensure that truthful information was being distributed to the entire neighborhood on issues that would promote stability, inclusion, and unity. Although, as a whole, our neighborhood has become more prosperous, we still face challenges of inequity and divide that mirror our larger society.
The recent shelter in place during a global pandemic has put a new filter on our actions and interactions. Things that we have taken for granted have vanished, there is uncertainty, confusion, and fear.
I have found that what has kept me afloat during this time of duress is the comfort, stability, generosity, and friendship of my family and my neighbors. Just sitting on the porch and talking with so many friends that I know who are walking by (at a safe distance) talking of our shared experiences and concerns, plans to support our local businesses, and coordinating plans to check on our vulnerable neighbors, are why I chose to live in this neighborhood.
This is a unique place in our city.
I appreciate so much the community that we have and continue to work and fight for. That is why we continue to produce this little paper; to provide accurate, timely, and entertaining information. Check on your neighbors today, FaceTime with your family, order take-out from a local restaurant, and look forward to a time when we can hug each other again.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April–May 2020.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2020_04.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
