They say hindsight is 20/20, so looking back at the year we left behind is supposed to provide some perspective.
Over the course of the year we move through news cycles incredibly fast. At the Mercury, working as a weekly publication, there are a number of stories that receive attention for one week, maybe we devote 500 words to a topic and that is all.
Hopefully, stories that demand further attention, those that have a more profound impact on the community at large, are revisited and put in everyone’s view so as to not be missed. We make the decision of what’s important each week. Many may disagree with what we consider to be the top stories in a week or what topics we decide to cover in follow-up stories.
Presenting a year in review allows us to revisit some stories that received little attention but may have been particularly poignant pieces that benefit from a second view. They may have been small stories about regular people doing something different in the community. Recalling those stories recalls the new ideas that filtered through the community in the past 12 months.
Looking back at them, we can analyze where the city was a year ago and where we are now. We can see growth and progress in our community, even if that growth was small or stunted.
This goes beyond what the City of Estevan does in a year. As a municipal administration, the City gets a lot of press. We know what our councillors’ decisions were. We know what projects they decided to undertake and their plan to pay down public debt.
There are other cultural and social stories the Mercury addressed in 2014 that show a progression in the city that may have a big impact in the future.
The stories that didn’t make the front page included a feature on Ramadan and how local Muslims, a growing minority in the Energy City, recognized the ninth month of the Islamic calendar centred around fasting.
We followed the formation of a community garden in the city that provides a social connection for local gardeners and others who wish to learn more about becoming more self-sufficient in their diet.
The Estevan Police Service began a community recognition program that shows its appreciation of community members who have done something to outwardly make the community a more positive place.
We saw local artists submit work for public exhibition at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum and heard from musicians performing at various outlets across the city.
We completed a three-part series on mental health issues, focusing on depression, exploring how it can impact an individual socially and professionally while looking at resources available to those suffering in the Estevan area.
While we are an outlet designed to inform a community on what is happening, the more important role is always to shine a light on why it is happening and what it means to those who live in Estevan. That means providing context. That means including perspective.
Sometimes that perspective is insufficient in the moment. It’s at the end of the year when we can look back and have a greater understanding of the larger community we live in.
