As the sun keeps shining and the fair winds blow in from the Southland, it is hard to imagine we are in the Christmas season. But a visit to the post office provides a wake-up call, as many find their boxes filled with “please send holiday money” letters from worthy and not-so-worthy causes.

So, let me put in my two cents’ worth.

A subscription to the Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper is a great way to keep in touch with your family, friends and favorite region businesses. Week after week, we do our best to help out our friends who ask us to use our pages to help them publicize their interests and help them raise a few bucks. We are glad to do this, for we believe your fundraising event, happy gathering, or even a plea to help someone out is important.

These are a few examples of community news, and we are a community newspaper. Unlike some papers, we believe when someone with ties to our community passes on, it is important news, so we don’t charge you to put their obituary in our paper or include it on our online offering.

We also offer The Morning Catch and an online edition at no charge. In addition, we provide a space for readers to sound off.  We know our readers care about community events, including politics, and have strong opinions about them. That is why we print letters to the editor and have online discussion platforms.

Week after week, our staff attends public meetings of our local government to let you know what is going on with the selectmen, the planning board, the appeals board, and the other arms of government. We also provide coverage of the ways our law enforcement, public safety and first responder professionals and volunteers protect our lives, our kids and our property.

We give lots of space to our schools, for they provide a major service for our community. After all, they educate and care for our most important asset, our children and grandchildren. They are also the biggest single expense for our taxpayers.

Not all of the news we bring you is good news. We have problems, just like every other community, but our landscape and scenery are a lot better than most. We cover these problem issues, too. For instance, despite a lack of evidence, our local lobster fishing community is under attack from outside forces. These forces seem to mean well, but they propose a solution that is unworkable and damaging to the hardworking local folks.

It is no secret that our climate is changing. We can debate the whys and wherefores, but we know we will face major problems in the future. In the coming years, we all will have to cope with some of the basic ways we live our lives.

For generations, our nation’s community newspapers have provided you with news that affects your homes, your work and your families.

But we are under attack. The United States has lost almost 1,800 papers since 2004, including more than 60 dailies and 1,700 weeklies. Roughly half of the remaining 7,112 in the country – 1,283 dailies and 5,829 weeklies – are in small and rural communities. The vast majority – around 5,500 – have a circulation of less than 15,000, according to a University of North Carolina study.

Just like for our great traditional boat builders, technology has changed our local news industry. Today, Big Tech grabs our stories, pastes them on your phone and tablet, and doesn’t send us a red cent.

It seems akin to a hypothetical shoplifter going into our local grocery stores, grabbing all the meat, fish, and canned goods, evading the cashiers, and waltzing out the door. Then they give the goods away to the folks in the parking lot. That is not a successful and sustainable business model.

But why should I pay for news? I get it online for free, you might say. Well, Grasshopper, just how long do you think that will last? And more importantly, Fox News, MSNBC, the online copy on your local news feed, and the rest of the electronic news universe don’t care about folks in Boothbay, Edgecomb, Wiscasset, or Damariscotta. Neither do the NY Times and Washington Post.

But, if you have read this far, whether you are a local, a summer resident, or a tourist, I know you care about your community.  And there is something you can do about it.

You can open your checkbook and subscribe to The Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper. A subscription to your local paper will make a great stocking stuffer.

Don’t you think?