Emax’s “As We Were Saying” column from Sept. 20, 1963, expresses perfectly my sentiments this Tuesday as I write this.
In fact, Jack and I took a walk around the block on deadline just to shake the cobwebs out and clear my head before coming back and reading his skinny little column back when the paper was going through many adjustments because of the changes occurring in the world.
I’ll talk about that in a later column.
Emax: “Lives of small-town editors can become as confusing as a phone switchboard during an emergency. Everything becomes a mass of jumbled communications and criss-crossing wires. Eventually, either order is restored or a fuse is blown.
“Editors invite confusion when they elect to run community newspapers, since the paper easily becomes a kind of switchboard or clearing house of comments, complaints, facts and ideas. The greater the journal’s sense of responsibility, the more people heap trust upon it…
“Strangely enough, the truth isn’t always acceptable to everyone. Many times readers cringe for fear the morning’s mail or delivery will bring a newspaper filled with too much truth. There are other times when the truth isn’t recognized. The lives of many are so fuzzy that in the dim light, fact and fancy seem one.”
Little has changed in 50 years as to community newspaper editors. People are people and pleasing all is an impossible task, just as is trying to please our little Army of house cats. Little did I know when my son Zac left Kitten Doodle, a toy Himalayan, at our house because of his allergies that she would not get along with our other cats, growling and slapping at Moo Cow and Pretty Boy Floyd anytime they came near her.
She, like many people, just doesn’t get along with everyone. Even cats have their baggage.
Becky Clark, Editor
