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We have many institutions to be thankful for. My favorite is a free press, for without it there would be no democracy. As the Washington Post banner declares every day. ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’. The signers of the Declaration of Independence understood that when they penned their names at the bottom. What would the Declaration be without signatures?
We might ask ourselves, what is a free press? Is it news, is it opinion, is it announcements, is it advertising, is it obituaries, is it the stories that bind us into a community? Or is it all of those?
In this age of instant communications, the anchor that makes Sudbury Weekly a reliable friend, and friend to democracy, is the sourcing of the facts and the bylines on the articles. In the bad old days of anonymous letters and articles elected officials were targets of dark corner bullies. Anonymous articles don’t bind a community, they destroy one.
A publication that stands behind its stories stands the test of time. Bravo for Kevin LaHaise and the courageous residents who signed their names to opinion letters. Without a byline I can’t even say ‘I don’t believe you’, because I don’t know if you really exist, if you are AI, if you are a plagiarizer, or if you are just plain junk.
So, in our 250th year, as we rededicate ourselves and our country to American ideals of honesty, integrity, and tolerance, we should remember that a free press is more than a motto. Without it we would perish in darkness, and the light of liberty would go out. We owe a debt of gratitude to Sudbury Weekly and all publications that carry on the hard work of protecting our democracy.
Len Simon