By Jeff Clemetson | Editor

This being my first issue as editor of the Mission Times Courier, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce myself to the communities that I will be chronicling month to month.

Community. As a journalist who works for a community paper, the word takes on a special kind of meaning and a certain degree of responsibility. Community newspapers, at their best, keep the neighborhoods they cover informed and connected through the stories written into the pages.

While the national press occupies itself with the sometimes intangible stories of the day, local media like the Mission Times Courier stay focused on the issues that all the readers can see and hear about everyday. The world is full of big problems and big stories, but the ones that are close to home can be just as important to us and our neighbors.

In this issue alone, there are stories about health care, the economics of the grocery industry and affordable housing, among others. These are big issues that matter to us all, but matter to us more when they are happening in the places we can see and visit. And more importantly, local issues are the issues we can do something about.

On Sept. 9, I had the opportunity to go to the Navajo Community Planners meeting. I went looking for a story to cover, but I also went to get an idea of how this community works. I was impressed by the passion the citizens and the various officials who gave reports had for the issues in their neighborhoods. It is a passion I strive to match in the reporting that goes into these pages.

I moved from the beach to La Mesa three years ago and have become more and more familiar with the foothills area. I hike Cowles Mountain. I eat breakfast at The Trails Eatery. My hospital is in Grantville.

So I hope that I am not only a good journalist for the communities covered in this paper, I hope that I am a good neighbor as well. And that means that I will always do my best to listen to the concerns of our readers and address the issues that are important to them because that is what makes a good community newspaper.

—Write to Jeff Clemetson at [email protected]