It was Sept. 26, 2004 — 10 years ago this Friday — when the Montana Perspectives section made its first appearance in the Sunday Inter Lake. 

To honor the occasion, I am reprinting my very first “Editor’s 2 Cents” column, which I think still does a very good job of describing the role of the Perspectives section as an “open forum about public issues.” 

I grew up reading the New York Times, and my favorite section to devour on Sunday morning was “The Week in Review,” which featured analysis, sarcasm and a health dose of pessimism about the ability of the human race to do anything right. Maybe that early reading helped inform my idea for the Montana Perspectives section as a place to test your own opinions against those of others. When we started, we were the only paper in Montana offering anything quite like it, and I think we still are.

I promised back in 2004 that this “2 Cents” column would offer “my own humble opinions” about “anything that catches my fancy.” Turns out that what caught my fancy was the increasing stranglehold of the federal government on our private lives, our businesses, our schools, our churches, our state governments and our formerly sacrosanct constitutional rights. 

If you like bigger government, you probably don’t like me or my column. Sorry about that. But if the government gets much bigger, or much more powerful, it won’t just be me who is silenced; it will be the American spirit. 

That’s why I speak up, and I encourage you to do the same. Don’t let anyone take away your right to think for yourself, and don’t believe anything anyone tells you without verifying the premises and double-checking the conclusions. People who are skeptical make good citizens; people who aren’t make good victims.

Keep reading; keep writing; and most of all keep looking over your shoulder — something may be gaining on you. 

Or it may already be here...

Sept. 26, 2004

Time for a fresh perspective on Sunday morning 

 It’s Sunday morning, and all around the country, people are opening their favorite daily newspapers and turning to their favorite section.

Frankly, it is my hope — and my suspicion — that this new section you are now reading will soon become the favorite of many readers of the Inter Lake.

Montana Perspectives, a new weekend opinion section, will offer a wide range of local opinion on topics big and small, as well as occasional national columns of analysis and commentary. The daily Opinion page, including the Inter Lake’s editorial, will appear on page two of the section.

As you can tell, this page will also include the editor’s two cents, which is to say my own humble opinions about this newspaper, journalism, life in general, or just about anything that catches my fancy.

A word of introduction is perhaps in order. Some of you know me, and some of you don’t, but I have been working happily at the Daily Inter Lake since 1984 in a variety of jobs in the newsroom. It’s been just as amazing to watch the changes and growth inside the newsroom the past 20 years as it has been to watch the changes happening in our community.  

Luckily, I’ve had a chance to grow, too, and in 2000, I was named managing editor of the newspaper. Since then, I’ve heard from many readers about what they want in a daily newspaper and also been able to share my thoughts about what the mission of a community newspaper ought to be.

Now, with this column, I’ll be able to reach a much wider audience, and maybe give people a better idea of what takes place behind the scenes when stories are being put together or decisions are being made.

Let’s start with this section.

It was really the idea of our readers — who have proven themselves to also be voluminous writers. In the past four years, I have tried to make the Opinion page a true community effort. The Inter Lake gives its opinion about issues in our editorials at the top of the page, but just as well read and just as much discussed are the letters to the editor from you the readers.

We’ve tried to let the letters be an open forum about public issues as much as possible, with access for everyone and a place for all ideas, whether popular or unpopular, reasonable or zany. If some voices seem too shrill, don’t blame us; we think they are shrill, too. But we think the tone of an argument sometimes tells a lot about the worth of an opinion. If some names appear more often than others, it is because those writers are persistent, prolific, and possibly more confident of the worth of their own words than even Al Sharpton. Again, please don’t blame us.

And please don’t think that we necessarily agree with a letter or column just because we printed it. We print letters and columns so that you the readers can make your own judgments about them. We provide the space, but you provide the voice. If you don’t think a particular perspective is being adequately represented, do us a favor — write your letter and send it to us. We can use it.