Newspaper offers comfort

Re: Lethbridge Herald

Maybe you’re a lifeline to some of us — to feel the actual paper; to read the words; to do the puzzles; to feel a sense of hope that things will go on; that there are real people out there. No amount of online or TV or radio or even phone calls can replace that sense of comfort that seeing the paper on the table does.

It’s not blaring bad news constantly at me. It’s reminding me of a time when my dad sat on the couch after supper to read the weekly newspaper. My mom sat beside him doing the mending. And when the chores were done, I could bring my dad’s library book and sit with him, reading over his arm another Zane Grey western novel.

That’s what we need today — comfort. And that’s what a community newspaper brings — local news, articles about local people, ads from local businesses, and the week’s births, weddings, anniversaries and, yes, even deaths. That weekly paper served as a school reader, a social studies assignment, an invitation into the lives of our town, and, at the end of the week, it held vegetable peelings or was a boat sailing in a puzzle or was folded into a hat for play.

So I am asking Lethbridge and area businesses and people to support the Lethbridge Herald. Send your news to them. Tell your stories. Buy an ad. Buy a print subscription. That would be real “social media!” Let’s communicate — and build tangible memories for a generation.

Karen J. Collin

Lethbridge