During the early '70s my wife and I moved to Fairhope, Alabama in order to attend college at the University of South Alabama. At some point, I took a break from my studies and got a job at the local weekly, a small town newspaper in a small Southern town that was right out of Norman Rockwell.
The Courier was run by a wonderful couple, Ford and Edith Cook and what I learned from them went well beyond learning the mechanics of newspapers and printing.
I was part of a group that published The Rearguard, an underground newspaper in Mobile. If you own a giant web press and publish a newspaper once a week, It makes no sense financially - or even mechanically - to leave it idle. The Courier job-printed other newspapers, ours included.
One day an FBI agent came to the paper investigating us. He wanted to know who published the paper as well as a bunch of other specifics. Mr. Cook, although very conservative himself, was incensed. He told him to get the hell out of his office that he was acting un-American and gave him a lecture about the First Amendment.
You could learn a lesson or two from this great American.
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