Happy 40th birthday year to Eugene Weekly! (“Vol. 1, No. 1,” 5/19). Weekly papers are America’s heart: local stories, celebrations and concerns, along with a forum for discussion. Whether it is local issues such as homelessness, national issues like tax fairness (i.e. the Child Tax Credit renewal) or global issues like the pandemic and support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, readers learn and discuss all in these pages. Not to mention elections, reproductive rights and climate degradation.

So happy birthday and thanks for all you do, from an appreciative out-of-town reader and conversation participant.

Willie Dickerson 

Snohomish, Washington