Merry Christmas
With this being the final editorial before Christmas Day, readers expect inspiring words about the holidays. Readers also want something positive and upbeat to take them into the holiday weekend.
It’s difficult to write something profound about Christmas that hasn’t already been said at some point over the past 2,000 years. However, finding positive things to say about our fine community is easy.
So many of us often take for granted that we live in a beautiful part of the world. Everywhere you look, it’s postcard perfect, even in the winter time. The light dusting of snow this week has given us an added ambiance.
Our community is generous. You don’t need to look any further than our daily Be An Angel campaign, or the many other holiday fundraisers that happen at this time of year. Everywhere you look, somebody is offering a campaign to support the less fortunate.
Our community is kind and friendly. While we might not rank as high as Maritimers on the friendly scale, Canadians, as a whole, are regarded as nice people.
We also live in a community that has a lot to offer its citizens from minor sports for our children to spectacular programs for seniors. We have numerous active service clubs, many places to worship. If you’re not involved with something, it’s your own fault.
We have an excellent junior hockey team that’s active in the community. We have great, local artists and musicians and a professional symphony.
Vancouver is only four hours away, Calgary seven hours. We don’t have to live in The Big Smoke but can easily access the benefits of a large city.
From our perspective as journalists, we’re grateful to still have print media. In the era of “fake news” where internet sites spread false rumours, Canada is blessed to have a free press. Kelowna and Penticton are two of only five cities in B.C. that still have their own daily newspaper. We’re still here because of people like you, who are reading and because of an extremely committed staff.
Our parks, beaches, hiking trails and walkways are gorgeous.
We’re blessed with an eclectic and unique business community which many other cities our size would envy.
Our schools and academic institutions are great; we have an excellent hospital; and our firefighters, ambulance personnel and police are all extraordinary individuals.
Is our community perfect? Not quite, but no place is. We’re pretty close.
So there you go, a holiday editorial, quite possibly the easiest one to pen in the past year.
On behalf of our entire staff and management, we wish all of our readers — print and online — a very merry Christmas and happy and safe 2018.