Thanks to the explosion in popularity of social media, many – if not most of you – are likely to have grown weary already of reading what others are thankful for in this month of giving thanks. Whether it is on Facebook or Twitter, millions have taken to their keyboards or smartphones on a daily basis to express their gratitude for whom or what it is that makes their lives better.  So prolific has the outpouring been that it has caused us to wonder would anyone be remotely interested in hearing what it is that we at The Tidewater News are thankful for ourselves.

And so, after our editorial staff ‘s annual debate over the merits of a Thanksgiving message, we have decided once again to venture an attempt at expressing what it is we are collectively thankful for this year, while (hopefully) avoiding the temptation to be cliché or to toss out the holiday platitude.

The responsibility that comes with serving our community as its newspaper of record is tremendous, and we embrace that responsibility wholeheartedly. It requires us to inform, challenge, debate and sometimes infuriate our readers. It allows us the opportunity to share the facts of a story with you on the front page, and then chime in with our opinion of the facts on the next page. It provides us the chance to trumpet all of the great things that take place in this community, while exposing some issues that require fixing. Best of all, it affords us a platform to document the stories and lives of the people that make up Western Tidewater.

We are thankful for the opportunity to be this community’s newspaper. And we thank you for trusting us to continue living up to the responsibility that goes along with it.

To each and every one of you, we express our thanks and wishes for a safe and happy Thanksgiving.