La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

Isn’t it great to have a longtime best friend who is sure of your worth? Some of us are doubly, triply blessed with parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins who believe in us, who are glad we have their backs.

I have one such friend: Dick Wittenberg. He will be thrilled to find his name here this week and I am lucky he gets to read the paper in La Conner.

We have been friends for over 40 years, since 1974. I was 19 when we met. He was 27 and running for re-election for the Ohio House of Representatives We bonded and now it is 2018 and he is visiting me on the anniversary of my moving to La Conner and buying the Weekly News.

This is a story of friendship, love, trust and belief. Dick, who for 30 years has said “Ken, you’re a writer,” called me up two years ago to tell me I needed to enter a contest to win a weekly newspaper in Vermont. It didn’t matter that I had never been employed as a reporter. I had written extensively in my employment and had written for Dick over the years: He had seen my work, knew my interests and values and had confidence that I could walk into this office and run a weekly newspaper.

His strong belief became my good future.

He was right. Newspaper ownership did – does – make sense. It is now my present-day reality. I am living his belief in the Pacific Northwest, nowhere close to Vermont, but succeeding at the exact work he confidently called me up to pursue two summers ago. Dick loves me because he believes in me. He believes in me because he loves me.

And that is how we succeed: A faith in a friend becomes an encouraging, insisting suggestion. Confidence evolved into effort. Dreams became proposals. Hopes grew into plans. Follow through became ownership in this newspaper.

What to do with strong relationships? Cherish them. Rely on them. Strengthen them. Stick with them.

I am glad you are here, Dick.