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YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 15, NO. 46
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2024
Looking back on 2024 Remember the year that was? The storms, the politics — the surfing dogs? Let’s take a look back at 2024 through our annual timeline.
“Ocean” puts the toes to the nose. Photo by Jake Montgomery
History of you Introducing the Year in Review edition
BRIAN MCMILLAN PUBLISHER
Nearly 100 years ago, journalists in the Washington Post began calling their newspaper the “first rough draft of history.” In 1963, publisher Philip Graham used it in a speech to Newsweek journalists, saying: “So let us today drudge on about our inescapably impossible task of providing every week a first rough draft of history that will never be
completed about a world we can never really understand.” Sounds pretty serious. Is it true of a community newspaper, too, like the Observer? After all, we’re not writing about wars or politics of national consequence, right? Fortunately, there are no wars in our community — not in the geopolitical sense, anyway. But when I look back at the stories that our readers responded to most on observerlocalnews.com throughout 2024, I see two main categories: Tragedies through car crashes or crimes, and community growth
through land development and businesses opening. In the end, if someone you know dies in a car crash, that news feels even more consequential than a foreign war impacting millions. If a new business opens down the road — especially if it’s owned by you or your neighbors — it will impact your life more than any change in politics on the national level. And so, we will keep tending to our little city. We will continue to call you on the phone to ask for your opinion on local matters. We will keep taking pictures at high school basketball games and local parades.
We will keep attending the local government meetings to find all the bits of news that make up the most important first rough draft of history — the one about your own neighborhood. Thank you for reading the Observer in 2024. I hope you enjoy this Year in Review edition. Next week, on Jan. 2, we will be publishing our Standing O edition, which includes the Teachers of the Year. Thanks to our advertisers who make it all possible. Email brian@observerlocalnews. com.