My parents always taught me a number of great lessons in life. Dad taught me how to bait a hook, ride a bike and rebuild carburetors.

Mom taught me scores of things, too, including how to play well with others, how to share, how to be honest and to apologize when you make a mistake.

This morning I need to apologize to some of the organizers of the Citizens Committee for Ironton City Schools. The group is the main driving force behind the support of the school bond levy that would build three new city school buildings.

This newspaper took a stand against the school bond levy last week. But my apology this week doesn't affect the newspaper's stance on the issue or my personal feelings about the bond levy.

Instead, we simply made a mistake by failing to offer the committee a place in our election guide that was published last week.

While lots of factors contributed to our oversight, the long and short of it was that we simply made a mistake. And, for that I take full responsibility.

Anything this newspaper does - or doesn't do - is ultimately my responsibility, regardless of whether or not I have a direct hand in it or not.

Despite whatever yarn the rumor mill may spin, the oversight was not intentional and had nothing to do with our editorial views.

The persons here at the newspaper who were directly involved in creating the advertising portion of the election guide had no knowledge that the newspaper was going to take a stance on the bond levy.

In the grand scheme of things, the opportunity to place one ad may not seem like a big deal to some people, but the fact that we made the mistake hurts all of us here at the newspaper more than most folks will ever believe.

I've worked at a number of different newspapers from small, community newspapers to much larger metropolitan newspapers. Never have I worked with a group of people as dedicated as providing the news as accurately and without bias as the folks who help bring The Tribune to your doorsteps.

We try not to make mistakes or oversights, but they happen more than we'd like.

And the best way I know to handle them is to say you're sorry, roll up your sleeves and try to do better tomorrow. Come to think of it, Mom taught me that lesson, too.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Ironton Tribune. He can be reached at (740) 532-1441, ext. 12 or by e-mail to kevin.cooper@irontontribune.com.