Our View: Thumbs up, thumbs down

Fair warning out there, with spring comes a spirit of optimism, and the Pine Knot News is not immune. Thus, we give only positive feedback this week. Enjoy.

Thumbs up to news that the legislature adopted compromise language for school district public notices that will keep them in local newspapers and allow only certain school districts — which unexpectedly find themselves without a local newspaper — to publish notices on their own websites until Aug. 1. Like Swift County Monitor-News publisher Reed Anfinson said in last week’s guest editorial: “How many people visit a school website for public notice information? It’s probably about the same number who regularly show up for a school board, city council, or county board meeting. As someone who reports on all three, we can give a pretty good estimate — almost no one.”

Thumbs up to the selection of “The Crucible” for the Cloquet High School spring play. The crowd on Sunday was pretty sparse compared to Disney musicals, but it’s important to produce art that makes us think, as well as art that makes us feel good.

Thumbs up to Carlton County Commissioner Gary Peterson for not becoming a career politician. Popular, smart and hard working, Peterson likely would have won another term representing western Carlton County. But it’s good to give other people a chance to do their part, and perhaps get some new faces on the board. Here’s hoping several folks throw their hat in the ring.

Thumbs up to volunteers, because they make the world go around. Last week was National Volunteer Awareness Week, but volunteers turn up every week of the year. Sadly, it seems like there are fewer of them each year, because younger generations, well, they mostly have too many other things to do with kids and cell phones and all that good stuff. Volunteers know a secret though, one we’d like to share: helping others makes a person feel better about life and themselves, so it’s a win-win. Here’s hoping more people start stepping up. Maybe they’ll start with the Cloquet riverside cleanup Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon starting at Dunlap Island picnic shelter.

Finally, thumbs up to everyone who came to the Pine Knot News “Fish & Fowl” opening last Friday, and all nine artists who contributed. Close to 60 people came, despite the rain, which sadly washed away the chalk art outside. Didn’t make it? No problem. The Roundabout Art Tour is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and The Knot

gallery is part of that, too. See you there!