Seventeen years have passed since my work first appeared in The Saline Courier. For the first three years, I wrote a weekly column under the heading “Resident Boomer”, a moniker ordained upon me by then editor Whit Jones. He felt the name was appropriate as I was representing the Boomer generation with my point of view. His decision changed my life.

I wasn’t compensated for my weekly contribution, nor did I ask for such. I was in it for the enjoyment and the chance to stretch these long legs of mine into creative writing, an area in which I had always wanted wade.

In the spring of 2011, I was offered the position of editor for the newspaper. For the next three and a half years, I learned from the talented staff around me how to cover news, find the facts and report them without bias. I learned how to put the stories and photos into a design that would, hopefully, catch the eye of the reader.

Those were the most transformative years of my life. But with that growth came sacrifice. Feeding the excitement I felt in chasing down a story, asking the tough questions and capturing the perfect picture pulled me away from time I could not get back with family and friends.

So, after the elections of 2014, I left.

But I didn’t disappear. I found a way to keep writing by going back to where I started – submitting columns. Along the way between then and now, I stopped, telling myself I was finished.

In the late spring of this year, Destin Davis, current editor of The Saline Courier, made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He asked if I could help out with news coverage while he hired new staff and got them up to speed. I jumped at the chance. It would give me something else to do while enjoying retirement. Again, I didn’t ask for pay nor would I accept if offered.

Between then and now, I’ve learned new things and confirmed too many old.

I’ve learned that, these days, people don’t like to read full stories. They want nuggets, not the whole chicken. Seeking news that supports a particular perspective feeds a need or desire that validates said needs or desires.That we, as a society, have a developed an unfortunate case of myopic vision of the past and, more importantly, the future we create today.

That lies wrapped within the cloak of false patriotism or righteousness make the bitter pill they are more easily swallowed.

For clarification, I must say these things I’ve learned and confirmed are not the majority of people, elected or otherwise. But the influence they wield pulls in individuals and organizations that otherwise would do or know better.

With all this being said, the last thing to say is that I have come to the point that I know when to say when. And that time is now.

I will no longer be reporting or covering news. I feel good with this decision. It’s time to open a new chapter.

This decision does not mean I won’t be watching or asking question. It means that breaking the constrictions required of straight news reporting frees me to express opinions on what I see and know.

And this is where I will do it.

Going forward, the Common Man Gazette will be the home of my opinion pieces. It will also be the site for the fictional home of news for the town of Jordan’s Bend.

Thank you to all of those who remember “the good old days” of my time at the paper, to Destin Davis for helping this old geezer find his groove again, and to all those who will follow me going forward.

I promise you won’t regret it.