Water, water everywhere
Marion County's water crisis has brought out the best — and the worst — in civic behavior.
Time will tell whether Hillsboro's approach or Marion's proves to have been the most prudent. Clearly, the approaches have differed. Perhaps each will end up having its advantages.
Either way, many public servants in both communities, at the lakes and around the county are to be applauded for their often heroic efforts.
Not to be applauded are those among us who attempted to instigate panic or who ignored guidelines limiting water use.
Nor should we applaud occasional lapses in judgment, understandable and inadvertent as they might have been.
One resulted in an "executive session" meeting that nobody admitted calling but at which 15 were present.
Another involved imparting, seemingly with no ill intent, two separate mistaken impressions about exactly how long one town had continued to use reservoir water after the crisis began.
Excluding the public and "spinning" the facts always are bad ideas. Democracy and public decency demand that citizens have unfettered access to the whole truth, painful though it may be. Next time, at least, we all will know better.
We also would like to thank our own staff, which since June 6 has provided free daily coverage to a growing number of readers online .
We even offer praise to other Web sites in the county, which joined in providing updates this past weekend, even if one such site chose to rewrite an official government statement to exclude from a list of sites publishing updates the addresses of our sites.
Yes, crises bring out the best and worst in all of us. Fortunately, the "bests" have outnumbered the "worsts" this time around. Let's hope it stays that way.
— ERIC MEYER
