Bigfork Eagle editorial

A visionary

It is hard enough to run a community newspaper, let alone launch one. But Dale Singer had a vision, and together with editor Bill Cenis, he made that vision soar.

The Bigfork Eagle has gone through many evolutions and owners since Singer founded the paper in 1976, but it is still here—an enduring tribute to the man who saw a need for community coverage. Bigfork has also undergone vast metamorphosis. But that need for local coverage remains.

Reporting the news, telling people's stories, giving play-by-play accounts of prep sporting events—that is good community journalism. Singer knew this, and his paper reflected the town and its people. Singer also understood that photojournalism was as equally important as a well-told story. His principles are still valid today, and the Eagle is the top weekly newspaper in the state because we maintain those important standards.

We at the Eagle are grateful to Dale Singer for the forethought to create a community paper. Part of his legacy is a newspaper that Bigfork should be proud of—a paper that is still committed to the small town it covers.

"We'll do our best to produce a newspaper that is up to everyone's expectations," Dale said in the first ever edition of the Bigfork Newspaper, published on Dec. 15, 1976. That still applies today.

Another vision, more vast in scope, was that of Sister Rosa Parks, who passed away Monday. Parks taught us all that it takes one act of courage and grace to change an entire political climate. Her deed was true: she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Her subsequent arrest resulted in a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks that was organized by a the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Rosa Parks had a vision of a country that was not divided by color lines. Her simple act did not go unrecognized. Her simple act changed the nation. Someone said, "By sitting down, she was standing up for all Americans." Amen, sister.