Seize the moment
to celebrate not being silenced
As the Record’s dedicated distribution crew begins labeling and mailing this week’s issue, I’ll be sitting in my office while documentary filmmakers try something they’re calling a “cinematic drone shot” of me through my office window.
I have absolutely no idea what any of that means. Most days, if I were to look out my window and see a drone flying toward me, I’d duck, thinking it was an aggrieved politician making a strafing run.
Those are the kinds of shots I expect being a small-town editor. “Hero shots” for documentaries aren’t what I signed up for, and I’ll be more than happy when filming about the disavowed police raid on our newsroom two years ago finally ends.
We at the newspaper were victims, not heroes. And we, like most of our readers, worry that the message the world hears is that we live in a town where rights were trampled rather than that we live in a town where mistakes were made — as they can be anywhere — but we got past them.
We’ll be honoring both the overcoming of grievous errors and a particularly bright spot related to the raid at a come-and-go reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday at our office.
We’ll have light refreshments available not just for those who want to remember the raid but also for those who want to bid farewell to one of the best things that happened after the raid — the year reporter Finn Hartnett has spent stepping back from the Land of Oz to document some of the wonders that exist in plain, old, not-so-black-and-white Kansas.
Had the raid never happened, it’s doubtful we would have been able to attract such a talented writer, who hails from chic Tribeca in lower Manhattan (not the Aggieville Manhattan) and graduated from the prestigious University of Chicago.
To Finn, spending a year in Marion County was like taking a gap year to work in the jungles of Guatemala. He’s enjoyed it, and we’ve enjoyed having him, but just as we long for our hometown whenever we’re away, he’s drawn back to his roots, which most definitely aren’t those of corn and wheat crops.
He’d just as soon make his departure anonymously, but drop by anytime from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday to enjoy a snack with him and express your appreciation for his exploring our community from the type of outside perspective we hope the world can adopt instead of tarring us with the actions of a rogue police chief who never should have been hired and other officials who either wanted to weaponize law enforcement against us or were afraid to challenge what they knew was wrong.
The documentary folks will be there, too. You can ignore them or speak your mind with them. That’s up to you, but don’t let their presence dissuade you from expressing your appreciation for Finn’s work.
And, yes, we’ll also honor the work of the rest of our dedicated team, who despite intense pressures that continue to this day have valiantly soldiered on, seized but not silenced by the raid.
— ERIC MEYER