War jitters

Some readers will wonder about the timing of this issue. It came out, as you can see, on March 20, but Reno’s anniversary was on March 16. “Surely,” readers will think, “those guys over at that alternative newsweekly know what the heck the date is.”

We had this piece ready in time for last week’s paper, but decided at the last minute that it would be better to explain this Iraq war thing as best we could before the bullets started flying. “Iraq War for Dummies” seemed to me to do that job better than most of the attempts I’d seen. (The story originally ran in our sister paper in Chico.) Choosing to explain the war over Reno’s centennial celebration was a question of priorities that didn’t require a whole lot of consideration.

So here we are. At deadline, the war hasn’t started yet, but I have a strong feeling that it will have begun before I write my next Editor’s note. My thoughts, and the thoughts of everyone here, go out to our soldiers and their families.

That said, let’s talk about lighter things. This cover package turned out to be surprisingly complex and fun. I love history, and I learned a lot through talking with the writers and historians. The people over at the Nevada Historical Society bent over backwards to help us, giving us access to their files and direction on how to do the research. They even let us bring a laptop and scanner in so that we could get the quickest and best possible reproduction of images.

Does this paragraph sound as falsely cheerful to you as it does to me?

I must tell you, I’m really bummed out about this war. I’m not a pacifist, and I believe Saddam Hussein is a rabid dog that should have been put down a long time ago. I don’t know. I’m so conflicted. If this war is wrong today, it’s going to be wrong next week. Did we try all the diplomatic means to solve the problem? Were there other methods to get rid of him and his sons that weren’t tried? I guess I’m afraid, and that’s what’s really bothering me.