Defending Utopia: The Greenbelt News Review at 80 opened to a sold-out crowd in the Old Greenbelt Theatre on Thursday, November 16. The film, and the speakers who preceded it, examined the role the newspaper played both in the long-term success of the town and in our nation’s understanding and application to the media of the First Amendment of the Constitution.
But before the speakers, there was dessert. Chef Lou provided chocolate and vanilla cakes and wonderful bread pudding, giving the speakers a sweet introduction followed by a verbal one from Cathie Meetre, president of the paper. Meetre thanked those who run the paper and those who read it, as the many past and present members of the newspaper in the audience waved their hands in acknowledgement. She also noted that both the evening and the movie were dedicated to longtime editor Mary Lou Williamson – who, in the words of the program – had done for the city more than can be known.
Meetre then introduced speakers Megan Searing Young and Chris Cherry.
Community
Searing Young noted from her perspective as curator of the Greenbelt Museum that, “Since its founding in 1937, just weeks after the first residents moved into Greenbelt, the Cooperator, now known as the Greenbelt News Review, has always been much more than just a newspaper. It has not only helped to establish many of the ideals under which Greenbelt was founded: cooperation, egalitarianism and a dedication to a new way of living; it has also been a tool by which those ideals and values have been transmitted.”
Read more about the film premiere in the November 23 News Review.
