Having, over the last few months, had ample opportunity to contemplate and discuss the matter, we feel the time has come for The Baltimore Sun to take a position on what may be the most pressing issue of our time. We hereby officially oppose snow.

This newspaper does not appear previously to have taken an explicit position on this or on any other major form of weather, but a search of the archives reveals a dangerous quasi-pro-snow policy. In February 2007, we noted that "maybe we wouldn't even mind one more snowfall," and in 2004, we admitted an affection for "an occasional snowman and a well-thrown snowball." Our response to the record snowfall of February 2003, perhaps, was the one that truly tempted the fates: "The snow was a given. It didn't matter what we thought of it. We were irrelevant to it. It was an act of power and range and beauty that was far beyond us - and it was a privilege to be here for the record Storm of '03." What was Mother Nature to conclude upon reading that over her morning coffee?

Here in the winter of 2009-2010, we have wrung all that is redeemable out of the snow. Feelings of camaraderie with neighbors while shoveling? Check. Return to slower, simpler life? Done and done. Triumph of the human spirit (and U.S. Postal Service) in the face of adversity? You got it.

The children of Maryland are now fully justified in telling their kids how bad it was when they were young, and we have broken all applicable records. It has gotten so bad that the TV weather forecasters have been caught referring to the possibility of 2 or 3 inches of snow on Monday as no big deal. If even they can't muster the energy to hype the coming of the white death, we have nothing left to prove.

We are, however, mindful that God, irritatingly familiar with the big picture, enjoys reminding mortals of the law of unintended consequences. Thus, we limit our opposition to the remainder of this winter. Would it be too much to ask for Punxsutawney Phil to have been wrong and for us to cut straight to azalea season (assuming any azaleas are still alive)? Barring that, how about just no more snow this week? OK, OK, maybe just none on Monday? At this point, we'll take what we can get.

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