Shellys: The things we take for granted -- like freedom of the press
We rarely think about the things we take for granted — the car starts, the dryer dries, the toilet flushes, the mail is delivered, and the morning paper lays waiting on the front sidewalk. As soon as one of these things doesn’t happen, it gets our attention. We admit taking the morning paper and our morning coffee for granted, and when there is no paper, it just doesn’t feel right.
We take it for granted that ideally a newspaper will be attentive to presenting the truth and facts in an unbiased way, but if that doesn’t always happen, you can be sure it gets our attention. We have taken home delivery of the Canyon News, the Amarillo Globe-News, and the Wall Street Journal for granted, but then the WSJ stopped home delivery. The answer was digital, which was just not the same. We have come to accept that it’s not the best idea to take things for granted, not even the newspaper.
Change is always hard. Admit it, there is something satisfying about picking up the newspaper, opening the plastic wrapping, and unfolding the paper to see what the headlines are. Everyone has their “go-to-first” reading — sports scores, the opinion page, personal interest stories, or the obituaries. Fortunately, some papers take longer to read, like the Sunday edition of The New York Times. At our age, we have a long history with newspapers but have come to realize that change is steady and unrecognizable at times. Catching us off guard, our response is usually, “When did that happen?”
Thinking about the print media led us to reflect on how our experience with newspapers has been like a thread running through our lives even today. The newspaper has always been a link between people and their community. Linda’s dad began writing a column called “Quotes and Quips by Florell” for The Cuba (Kansas) Tribune in 1933 after graduating from high school. That job led to working as a typesetter at The Fairbury (Nebraska) News Journal. After the war, he went to The Denver Post for a while as a linotype operator.
Linda’s experience involved being the editor of her high school newspaper, learning about the process of creating a newspaper from its inception to its publication. The community was self-contained, but connected students with their school.
Walt’s experience was different in that he grew up in an urban version of community, which reflected ethnically diverse neighborhoods. He was a “paperboy,” an antiquated term these days, from age 10-17. Walt delivered The Wilmington (Delaware) Evening Journal to 90 customers on foot, carrying his bag over his shoulder, six days a week (no Sunday paper). Every paper had to be individually folded as he walked before it could be thrown. His customers had names and faces and personalities. Each paper cost 3 cents (18 cents/week) and he was responsible not only for throwing the papers, he was responsible for collecting the 18 cents each week.
The newspaper provided Christmas calendars that the paperboys could purchase for 8 or 9 cents and then sell to customers for extra Christmas money. When customers asked what the calendars cost, Walt always gave the same answer, “Whatever you want to give me.” He will tell you that collecting and selling calendars was character building and a constant lesson in human nature. In 1944 his family’s picture with the governor made the front page of the paper because his father had purchased a war bond for each of the 12 children. That front page still hangs in his study. Our experience with the newspaper sounds pretty old fashioned by today’s standards.
Doug Hensley commented about a month ago, “The landscape is a lot different than it was even a decade ago.” Change is reflected in more conglomerate ownership, economic issues, competition with other social media, and staffing, yet it is still always about communication — how to do it effectively, fairly, and accurately. These changes impact freedom of the press in whatever form it takes. It has never been more important that we recognize this if we are going to continue as a democratic society. Neither people nor press can take this freedom for granted. Today there is a certain urgency given the rate of change and the state of affairs in our divided society. Like all the changes we have seen over time, the changes taking place today are quietly steady or loudly unsettling. Hopefully, the day will never come when we say, “When did that happen?” to our freedom of press or to our democracy.
Walter Shelly retired after 40 years as a professor of political science at West Texas A&M University. Linda Shelly retired after 33 years of teaching sociology at West Texas A&M University and Amarillo College.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Shellys the things we take for granted -- like freedom of the press
