Tuesday’s Signal was a masterclass in why a vibrant local newspaper is still essential to civic life and democracy. That edition was chock-a-block with insights, from hard news to opinion pages, even down to the editorial cartoon, which struck a chord perhaps not quite as intended, but profound nonetheless.

From all sides, The Signal presented voices and events that represent our community as it exists today: solid coverage of our town’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day march and celebrations; reporting on an “805 Patriot” America 250 anniversary and Trump celebration; Andrew Taban’s nuclear blast against Trumpism; James de Bree’s measured response to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement-related shooting in Minnesota; a strong argument in favor of Donald Trump’s pardon of Honduran drug runner Juan Hernández; and a grateful thank you letter for the deeply personal column by Richard Harding about his own MLK experience while in the military.

This is what public discourse is all about.

I generally stand on the pro-democracy, pro-diplomacy, anti-war, and pro-human-rights side of things. Nowadays that earns the label “liberal.” Labels aside, what I am in it for is liberty and justice for all, administered by rule of law. Not law ignored or law abused. We are a nation of laws, and those laws mean we must respect our constitutional form of government. Every administration in my lifetime has made serious errors, yet America........

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