For more information about NFPW, as well as past issues of Agenda, go to www.nfpw.org.
Canadian songwriter Joni Mitchell has been my personal mental and emotional guru since my days as a college coed. Hearing her voice sing any of her songs, I’m taken back to a time and place of a much younger me, a more naïve me. “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t now what you’ve got ’til it’s gone?” Mitchell may have released ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ in the ’70s but it remains even more relevant in 2018 and to what has been happening in our country. This issue of Agenda focuses on our country’s First Amendment in our Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Straightforward for most, wouldn’t you say? But it is and remains something we as Americans should never take for granted. As members of NFPW, everything flows from these words. It may mean one thing to members who are journalists doing their job to report, interpret and write their contributions to truth. It takes a dedicated journalist to remain aggressive and fearless in a climate where the best press is judged by the product of the worst press. It may mean something slightly different to communicators in other genres. We need to remain well informed. Do you subscribe to a newspaper? Work to discredit fake news by supporting those newspapers offering the best in journalism. Does your affiliate support a high school communications contest? What can you do to encourage the students in your hometown to study journalism and become our country’s future journalists?
This past October, while attending the Northern Fall Conference of AAUW/American Association of University Women of Illinois, I had the privilege to meet and hear Illinois State Sen. Linda Homes and Illinois State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit. My major takeaway from their address
focused on the importance, whether on a local, state or national platform, to support, get involved, and back those seeking public office committed to protecting free expression, and support a system of public education that seeks advancing equity, gender fairness and diversity. They also encouraged attendees to consider running for office in their communities. “Begin at your local level,” they encouraged. “Get involved, and run for your local school board.” All of which brings me full circle to, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” Now, 47 years after Mitchell’s release, I’m more experienced and skeptical and I understand. A free press remains rare, unique and indivisible. It is core to our democracy.