Editorial: Punxsutawney Phil, Western Pa.'s gift to perpetual news

It happens every year.

All eyes turn toward a Western Pennsylvania hamlet to wait for a sleepy rodent to pop out of his burrow, look around for his shadow and make a prediction about when spring will start.

Let’s be honest. No one really thinks Punxsutawney Phil — or any groundhog, really — is a particularly gifted meteorological prognosticator. What he does prove is that some things happen with the clockwork regularity of a hibernating animal being pulled out of a long sleep for a photo op.

The news is full of those regular returns.

Right now, it seems like we have been reliving the coronavirus pandemic for more than a year. The daily tally of positive cases and deaths and administered vaccines blur together like scenes in Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day” movie about reliving the same 24 hours over and over again.

Politics is caught in the same perpetual spin cycle. The only things that change are the parties. In 2017, Democrats were aghast at then-President Donald Trump’s use of the executive order to reverse Obama-era policies. In 2021, it’s Republicans crying foul as President Biden does the same.

In Harrisburg, there is nothing more predictable than locked horns, especially when it comes to the state budget. Counties and school districts have become disturbingly accustomed to operating like there is no state spending plan since they have spent so much time in the last decades trying to function without one. Is there a groundhog in Strawberry Square that should be telling us how many weeks it will take to come to a grudging agreement this year?

But these kind of cyclical stories don’t just happen in the seats of power. They happen in our backyards, too.

We can depend on local government bodies that will try to keep information from the public because we know that it happens with the kind of regularity you can use to steer ships and set clocks.

We know some of our neighbors are a kind of selfless that defies description. How many of our firefighters are volunteers who risk their lives to save our lives and our homes? And how many of them still will have to find ways to beg for help to do that through fundraisers because government leaders don’t provide enough support?

The frustrating part of an annual event is that it allows you to measure each year against the last. It’s what makes New Year’s resolutions so draining, knowing last year’s “lose 10 pounds” is this year’s “lose 15.”

But this year, when Phil comes out of his hole, he does it virtually. There won’t be the same crowd or the same fanfare. This year, even before he pokes out his head, everything will be different.

Maybe this is the year the news stories will be different, too. Come on, Harrisburg. Maybe your groundhog can predict an on-time budget with no shouting match on the Senate floor this year.