In a democracy, a free society where citizens work to forge a better life for themselves and their families, it is both a privilege and responsibility for citizens to report their news. The First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press (along with the entire rule of law) is ours to safeguard, ours to make real. Citizens are both responsible for, and beneficiaries of, searching out and reporting their community’s news. In large cities, we the people have set up a system of training journalists who work for news outlets which we support. But in Greenbelt, we have a front-row seat, and are even sometimes on the stage, as we enact, week after week, a free press.
Journalism is about us and what we do. Our news describes and illustrates how we Americans are trying to form that sometimes elusive more perfect union. It’s about how we try to keep elected officials in tune with the community that put them in office as they spend tax dollars on schools and roads and law enforcement and more. It’s about how we seek new laws that will help us better realize liberty and justice for all. And our news is about our common life: what our teachers and students, our artists and scientists, our faith communities and other associations are doing to make this place even better. This is what the Greenbelt News Review seeks to report on each week, as it has done weekly since 1937.
It has been my privilege to be a part of this endeavor these past three years, reaching out to neighborhoods in the community, trying to include a wider cross-section of Greenbelt in the process. Time and time again I have been humbled by the commitment to community, the commitment to justice, the commitment to do the work (to put in the hours) it takes to help neighbors, to help neighborhoods, to work for an even better Greenbelt. I am awed by the commitment of citizens, from councilmembers to teachers, from law enforcement officers to members of various boards and committees, and to the many, many others working for this community. I will never forget the example you set.
It’s funny I became known as the sports section guy. My family got a chuckle out of it, knowing that from childhood I’ve been an orchestra geek, not an athlete. Why have a sports section? Because in a community like Greenbelt, sports news is ultimately about our young people, how they are learning to be a member of a team, learning sportsmanship, learning how to lose, all of which are essential skills for people in a free society. The sports page fulfilled another goal: it provided opportunities for yet more Greenbelt residents to write and photograph a segment of our news. I sought to reach that same goal in other areas: the arts, education, business and more.
I will miss being a part of this amazing American process and responsibility of reporting Greenbelt’s news. I will especially miss working with the volunteers at the News Review. What a great organization of talented, hard-working, smart, dedicated people doing all the many tasks to publish a newspaper week after week. I knew I’d have plenty to learn when I started with the paper, never having worked on a community newspaper before. I’m grateful to those at the paper and in the community who taught me so much.
It’s tough to say goodbye to the News Review. It was an honor to be trusted with the stewardship of such a venerable institution. I will miss the many incredible people I met and worked with, both on News Review staff and in the community. Know that I extend my best wishes and hopes for many more years of Greenbelt pursuing that more perfect union and its own newspaper reporting on it.
