Editorial

Lighting candles in Sisters

Sometimes it seems awfully dark out there.

The horsemen of war and plague gallop across the deserts of the Middle East and the savannas of Africa. The evening news is a litany of scandal, corruption and homicide. The nation is deeply, bitterly divided.

We must face the darkness; hiding from it does not make it go away. Yet we should not become mesmerized by it to the point at which we come to believe it encompasses all. Because there's a light out there, too, and it's close to home.

Many people in Sisters light candles every day, helping their neighbors and brightening their way. Every week, you'll read in these pages of someone doing something that makes this world a better place to live in.

Members of Sisters Kiwanis, Sisters Rotary, Sisters' firemen and local business people step up to make the holiday season better for the less fortunate in the Sisters community.

Community members and students adopt as their "sparrow" little Hannah Pite, helping her family wage a near-hopeless battle against the cancer that is attacking her. Their story is one of love and courage in the face of tragedy.

Adults volunteer at the schools to help children learn to love reading, while the community votes to keep funding quality education for Sisters' students.

Sisters is changing. Those changes are painful for a lot of folks who don't want to see more houses built closer together, fast food, traffic signals and more cars in their little town.

We're afraid of losing what makes Sisters "different" -- what gives us a quality of life many have worked hard to attain. We don't want to fall under the shadow.

But the spirit of Sisters is more than what we eat and where we shop. It's in the things we do to help and support one another. It's in the small courtesies and neighborly greetings we see every day at the post office and at the market.

It's in our generosity of time, money and spirit.

These are the things we should work hard to nurture and preserve. These are the candles we light to brighten our world.

Best wishes for 2005.