Journalistic heroes

To the editor:

Dear heroic Marion County Record staff. I think you are all heroes.

Today, I would like to say “bravo” to your dedicated staff reporter, Deb Gruver. Thank you for filing a federal lawsuit against Police Chief Gideon Cody to hold him accountable for all journalists.

I really enjoyed the articles on vetting, etc., as well.

Thank you all for running such a stellar local paper. Your courageous watchdog journalism, holding politicians, police, sheriffs, EMTs, city administrators and business people accountable, is exemplary.

I am glad some of the local townspeople are learning what a treasure they have protecting them.

When there is a cancer in town, you diagnose it and remove it! You do not ignore the negative in order to hear only “nice” news.

To those who prefer a “Stepford Wives” town and to bury their heads in the sand, your courageous hometown journalists are not the enemy.

They ask the hard questions and go where the timid refuse. They keep their communities informed and hopefully safe from Codys, Mayfields, entitled officials, drunken drivers, sexual harassers, and greedy business people who put themselves above the town.

I can’t help thinking, wouldn’t it be fitting if your city hired a woman police chief to replace Cody and made Ruth Herbel mayor? She has been another fearless woman in government.

Keep up the fight for freedoms of speech and from search and seizure. Our democracy depends on heroes like you.

Barbara Haas
Menlo Park, California