Two things happened on Friday, August 11, that stirred us from our summer doze and made us consider the role we play in the community.

Dana Milbank, columnist for the Washington Post who usually covers Congress, wrote a column, “The country has come apart. Rural America has a cure,” extolling the value of community newspapers as a social glue; and,

2. The Marion County Record in Marion, Kansas, was the subject of search warrants that resulted in the seizure of everything it needed to put out a paper. The paper nevertheless came out on time last Wednesday, August 16.
It’s a tough time for newspapers, and the way ahead is pretty rocky if the widely reported loss in America of two newspapers a week, for a total of 2,500 since 2005, is true. But we press on, recording history as it develops.
In 1909, the Mathews Journal reported that Mottram Miller had purchased an automobile, the first such mention of a car to appear in its columns. In 2002, the Gazette-Journal reported on George and Gl...