As I was saying: Thank you again for allowing me to serve

Eighteen months ago, I wrote my first column as president of the Texas Press Association and said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow members of the Texas Press Association for allowing me to serve as your 2021-22 president. It is a great honor, and I am very appreciative for the opportunity to serve you and the state press association.”

That sentiment remains true and strong as I write my farewell column.

Yes, a lot has happened during my presidency – some good and some bad. But through it all you have been there with me and supported me — even in my darkest hours after losing the love of my life Suzanne on Jan. 7.

So, I would like to again take a minute of your time and reach out and say thank you to a few special people who have been instrumental in getting me here today.

It goes without saying that my lovely bride Suzanne has been the key to any success I may have achieved, so bless her heart. I thank her for always being there for me, for you and for the Texas Press Association and all it stands for. She did far more than I in advancing journalism and freedom of the press by educating the next generation of the Fourth Estate. There are hundreds of journalists and teachers out there today carrying on the good fight because she instilled the drive and will to do better by their fellow man and never give up.

I hear from her former students almost weekly – a journalism professor in Georgia, a writer for Texas Highways, countless newspaper reporters across the nation, and many of you whom she took under her wings when times were tough and you needed her motherly advice.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Randy Keck for nominating me to go through the chairs. There are so many good people in the TPA, so I feel fortunate Randy reached into his magician’s hat and pulled out my name. And I want to thank Phil Major for being a true friend and always being there for me no matter what and no matter whose feathers I ruffled over almost three decades of being a fly in the TPA ointment. Thank you to Richard Stone, who dropped everything he was doing and rushed to help me put out my papers the week Suzanne died. I didn’t call Richard for help; my TPA brother was just there when needed most with his trusty laptop in hand, just like so many of you have been over the last six months.

It’s been a hell of a six months.

And a special thank you to Mike Hodges for guiding this association, which I proudly presided over. I was on the TPA board when we hired Mike, who was the right guy at the right time. Thank you, Mike. And thank you for always being there for me, especially this year.

I feel we have accomplished a lot in the last 18 months. We have Column up and going, and that should help us in our ongoing battle in Austin over legal notices. Thank you to everyone who worked on this project. I think we made the right choice. Now we all just need to make sure we use it and let our elected officials know we have it, use it, and it is free to the taxpayers.

I reached out to the UIL and believe we made some headway in problems between them and us. I find a sit-down talk always seems to help resolve most problems. Often both parties aren’t aware how bad a problem is until they are told. I find that here at the paper. I can’t fix what I don’t know is wrong, can you?

We had a good NNA-sponsored Zoom call with the U.S. postmaster general in 2021 and things looked promising for a while. Newspapers were being delivered faster in East Texas for many months thanks to the USPS Shreveport regional director and I working together. But we never were able to get the Dallas area postal problems resolved. We tried, but no one there seemed interested in our problems. I will keep working on it if our incoming president Leonard Woolsey wishes.

We addressed many other issues over the last 18 months and continue to work hard at being proactive. I firmly believe we as an industry must be willing to joust with windmills. We must step forward and demand change and help the little guy and yes – we can fight city hall and win. Suzanne fought city hall and saved our city’s library from being closed. And next month our modern library/community information center, “Lee-Bardwell Public Library,” will be reopened with new books and videos, along with private glass rooms for people to make tele-med calls and private video and audio calls to Social Security, the IRS and the unemployment commission. It will be an all-purpose information center for all our residents, thanks to one newspaper lady who saw a need and used her power of the pen to find a solution.

Like Suzanne, we all have a voice that can’t be silenced thanks to our Founding Fathers, even though some have tried recently to muzzle the press. Suzanne was very proud of the fact that we know we are doing something important when we work in the only privately owned business specifically protected in the United States Constitution. And yes – we really do buy our paper by the ton and ink by the barrel, which is impressive when you stop and think about it. 

In today’s world, we need to keep using those tools more and more.

Former Washington Post President and Publisher Philip Graham was right: Newspapers really are the first draft to history, and each of you in the TPA are the editors of that history. 

That is a heavy burden to carry, but each of you have the skills and courage to get the job done. Plus, you have all the resources of the Texas Press Association and its members behind you.

Thank you for allowing me to serve as your president. It has been a great honor.