You may remember that Edward R. Murrow always signed off his TV news show with, ‘‘Good night and good luck.’’ While I am obviously not putting myself in the same category as Edward R. Murrow, I thought that a similar statement might be a good way to close out my time as a community columnist. As I’m finishing my assignment and bidding everyone a good bye, I’m also wishing everyone in the valley the best of luck in these troubled times. When my three other colleagues and I met with officials of the Tribune Chronicle, Mr. Charles Jarvis (Publisher) and Mr. Frank Robinson (Editor), about a year ago, they asked each of us what it was that prompted us to want to be a community columnist. My answer was that I felt a need to try to influence people to challenge what I perceived to be the lock-step, group think actions or inactions of elected officials in our valley. I think of myself as an optimistic person but I’m not blindly optimistic; yet I felt that I had to try.