The first draft of our history
In the Light
One of the highest grossing movies ever was about a boat that sinks.
And, get this, everyone knew it was going to sink.
Sure, everyone wanted to know if the dirt-poor guy from Iowa was going to win the socialite, but still … The boat sinks.
I guess if you make a love story out of a maritime disaster, then … Well, there you go.
Anything is acceptable.
I was watching Ken Burns’ “The War,” and I realized a lot of the material in this documentary I had viewed and/or read about previously.
Still, I stayed glued to the television for a marathon session of “The War.”
Same with Ken Burns’ “The Civil War.”
We are supposed to learn our history so we won’t repeat it.
Then why do I sense the shadow of the late Joseph McCarthy in recent events?
Why am I writing about history you might ask?
And even if you weren’t going to ask you have my permission to do so now.
Simple.
The Courier News is an historical institution beginning as the Clinton Gazette, becoming the Clinton Courier under Horace Wells, and finally what you are holding now: The Courier News (after purchasing The Anderson County News).
The Courier News is a business celebrating it’s 130th birthday this year.
The Courier News is older than The Tennessean. The Courier News is older than USA Today.
The Courier News is older than any person breathing on this planet.
It’s older than the airplane, Google, coffee bars, and TVA.
The Courier News has chronicled the lives of Anderson Countians since 1887. This newspaper has published through wars, a Great Depression, true desegregation, social strife that almost tore this country and this city apart, and countless other transformations that have shaped the country we have today.
It has reported about death, natural and man-made disasters, crime and punishment, political scandal … And love and rebirth and atonement and every once in awhile really big tomatoes.
As we head into The Courier News’ next 130 years, this paper will be here, in Clinton, Tennessee, on the banks of the Clinch River, reporting about death, natural and man-made disasters, crime and punishment, political scandal … And love and rebirth and atonement and every once in awhile really big tomatoes.
We love what we do, but more importantly we want those who follow us to love what we did — just like we love what the people who worked here before us accomplished.
It’s not just a job, it’s our history.
And for good or bad, the Clinton Gazette, the Clinton Courier, and The Courier News have been and will be the first draft of that history.
