Thumbs Up — Heroism: all in a day’s work

The call went out Wednesday night: A 12-year-old Dresden boy disappeared after he got off the school bus.

People who can only be described as Maine’s “search and rescue community” responded immediately. Wardens, law enforcement officers, firefighters and others converged on Dresden to search for Micah Thomas, the missing boy.

They brought boats, planes and tracking dogs. They worked through the night, as snow fell and temperatures plunged into the 20s.

Searchers kept at it the next day, systematically combing for clues and remaining calm as the situation grew more desperate. Meanwhile, a steady stream of reinforcements volunteered to join the effort.

Their commitment paid off shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, when a rescuer identified only as “Tim” found the boy near a smelt shack, and Marine Patrol warden Christopher Hilton delivered Micah to safety.

For the wardens and their compatriots, slogging through mud, traversing treacherous terrain and crossing hypothermiaenducing waters represents part of the job. But outcomes like Thursday’s should remind us that these folks are heroes.

Thumbs Down — Shadow boxing

A key rationale cited in advocating for LD 1805, the bill that would exempt a governor’s working papers from Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, is that partisan operatives have used the act for political purposes and to harass government officials.

That should not be an excuse to create a new shield between Mainers and the people entrusted to govern them. Once again, state leaders seem poised to prioritize politics over people.

Thumbs Up & Down — Out of ink

The people who have published Encyclopedia Britannica for 244 years announced last week that they would stop printing editions of the world-renowned compendium of knowledge. Books printed in 2010 will be the final versions of Encyclopedia Britannica to be bound and cast on ink and paper.

The company will continue to offer digital version of the encyclopedia, and company spokesmen cited the potential to update information instantaneously in a digital version as an asset that spurred the decision to cease printing. Outside analysts attributed the death of bound volumes to the rise of free sources such as Google and Wikipedia.

The change offers a stark reminder of the difference between information and knowledge. The element of permanence that derives from committing information to ink demands deeper scrutiny and consideration of repercussions than does dissemination of information that can be altered or erased instantly.

Rigorous scrutiny converts information to knowledge, which, in turn, can be used to promote wisdom, an increasingly rare commodity in this click and delete world.

letters@timesrecord.com