Ediorial: “Fiber project finally can go forward”

Today’s Sunday editorial experessing relief that the fiber project can now go forward is another in a series of strong supportive ediorials from the Advertiser. (The Advertiser’s initial endorsement series was a model for how editorial endorsements should be done: it expressed a strong, reasoned position and followed it in the subsequent days with fact-filled analyses of the major issues of involved. Powerful stuff.)

Highlights:

The FTTH vision is of an infrastructure for the high-tech world of the future, when the movement of information will be as much a focus of business and industry – or more so – than the movement of cargo on today’s air, rail and highway transportation infrastructure.

…the transfer of information will be a priority of businesses looking for places to locate or expand operations. The FTTH plan will draw them to Lafayette.

That will mean more good-paying jobs and a better quality of life for our people…

Staying abreast of the technology should not be a problem. Lafayette has experts in all phases of telecommunications technology. There is a rich field from which to draw…

The plan is on a fast track now. Three years after the first customers are connected, the LUS fiber services – cable television, telephone and high speed Internet – should be available to all residents…

The facts are clear. The electorate supports the project. The courts have found no legal basis for stopping it. Lafayette now can move forward in giant steps toward accelerated economic growth and technological leadership.

Good stuff.

But there is a bit of revisionist history in the editorial and my old history teacher self feels obliged to note it–the Advertiser now claims that it supported the fiber project “from the beginning.” Would that were so. In fact the first few comments were anything but supportive with phrases like “What’s next? A five-year plan? A hall of socialist labor heroes?” In fact the daily, like the Chamber, came late to the party, endorsing only after community support had firmed up. In this vital battle neither were early leaders, however valuable their final contribution.

2 thoughts on “Ediorial: “Fiber project finally can go forward””