.

I don't know how up-to-date <a href="http://www.tehachapinews.co... contact page</a> is, but assuming it is correct, no one has been chosen to take the place of Carol Holmes as editor of the Tehachapi News.

Carol was great for the paper and for our entire community. She was a woman of integrity and near-infinite kindness. She raised the level of dialogue in our community to her high standards and we are all better for it. But now she has left and we have to wonder--what comes next?

The News has an obligation to represent the community and to bring to our attention the most important issues. It has to discern between whistleblowers and blowhards, breaking news and stuff-and-nonsense.

Here's what I would like to see in our next editor:

Someone with the integrity of Carol Holmes.

Someone who is more punchy than we've seen before. Tehachapi is growing and we need hard-hitting reporting.

Someone who can twist arms in the publisher's office and down in Bakersfield. The News will not long be able to hold itself to sufficiently high standards if it doesn't give the editorial department more money. It needs <i>at least</i> one more reporter.

Someone who is well vested in our community--preferably someone who already has a long relationship with Tehachapi.

It will be quite difficult for the News to find such a person. Most people with the talent may well view an editorship at the News as a stepping stone to bigger and "better" things. No good.

What it really comes down to, I think, is what will the News pay Carol's heir? Carol's service to this community was almost on a volunteer basis. Anyone who supposes that real talent will work for those wages again has <i>no idea</i> how lucky we all were to have Carol in the first place.

Carol was wonderful, but she is gone.

Let's encourage the folks in Bakersfield to invest in our community. And the best investment they can give us now is an excellent editor to carry on our city's long tradition of excellent journalism.