As a regular subscriber to The Arizona Republic I am debating whether the monthly subscription is worth $54. Since losing Steve Benson and the death of Clay Thompson, the paper has descended into a lugubrious pursuit of trying to balance a whole array of differing opinions in a fair and balanced manner. The paper tries valiantly to maintain a position right of the centre wherever that is these days. The results would appear to be increasing the paper's decline into insolvency. As much as I love Ed Montini and Laurie Roberts, the sharpness of their writing and the pertinent issues they deal with hurt because I want to see change but none seems forthcoming. Robert Robb plunges intelligently through the intricacies of the economy and history but leaves me exhausted. Johanna Allhands writes intelligently but her views on education and mine are completely different. I invariably agree with Abe Kwok and Elvia Diaz but neither set the pages alight. The only lightness of touch and regular humor I can recently find are Garfield and Peanuts. Arizonans don't take themselves seriously all the time. Do they? Surely there are fun stories out there? Please more humor. If we are going to go down, let's do it with a smile.