Days on Planet Earth

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Earth Day 2005, 1:30 p.m.

Showed up to do my time in the RN&R booth at Earth Day at Idlewild Park. Parked in the Reno High parking lot.

As in years past, I was quite impressed by the number of people who showed up to express their support for environmentalism in all its forms. Zero waste, clean energy, recycling—when you see Earth-conscious people en masse, it’s easy to be optimistic that the world has a chance to continue to support life in its myriad forms. On the other hand, there were a distressing number of automobiles. Not to be a hypocrite or holier-than-thou—I drove my SUV the 3.5 downhill miles to the event. I imagine my reasons were just as valid as anyone else’s—I was working in the garden, and I didn’t want to take the extra half hour to ride my bike home. The truth of the matter is, with a 10-minute walk from where I parked, I may have only gained a few minutes.

I was also struck by the number of people who wanted to talk to me about stories our newspaper should cover. Look, folks, we try to maintain an open-door policy. The times are few and far between that an unannounced visitor can’t show up at the office and come in and see an editor. It’s more convenient for me if people call before they show up, but, really, we’re not that formal around here. There is nobody here who considers talking to readers an inconvenience. (Although, not every message left gets returned, sometimes simply because stories aren’t what we’re looking for.) My direct-line phone number is 324-4440 ext. 3525. Don’t wait for a public occurrence to give me a call.

At any rate, I hope you made it down to Earth Day, and I hope you learned something you’ll find useful in weeks and months to come. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth, and if you want to talk to somebody here—please—consider this a personal invitation to call.