Sifting through decades of our archived newspapers provides a valuable perspective on the formation of a fire district and the gradual evolution of its fire department, which was initially staffed entirely by volunteers, as it grew to better serve the community. Our archives shed light on what was an underfunded school district that failed for years to pass capital bond measures and struggled to pass levies. The archives tell the story of the creation of Volunteer Park, which originally formed with volunteer labor and donations of land, time, and money, without the benefit of our taxes paid to Pierce County Parks. This is a great story of this community advocating for itself. These were foundational building blocks of our infrastructure here.
So much has changed, while fewer remember how we came to be than where we are today. Without a community newspaper, some of these opportunities to follow the breadcrumbs along the trail to form a more reliable history could have been lost entirely.
A new regular feature, KP Reflects, debuts in print this month, where we dive into the KP News archives to deliver choice headlines and snippets from this very month, five, 10, 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years ago. We hope that you will be inspired to trip through the ages yourself now and again to discover more, enjoy a few laughs, or maybe have a good cry.
Our online archives are open and free for all to search. In many ways, opening an old edition is something like unearthing a time capsule. You’ll see a familiar name, and then one thing leads to another, and you’ll begin putting more pieces together and bit by bit, discovering the colorful community that surrounds you.
You will find news reported here unlikely to be found elsewhere. What qualifies as front-page worthy news? That all depends on the given month. Every now and again, we see the occasional slim news cycle for one reason or another. We once ran a photo of a specialty-breed chicken kayaking from Longbranch to Anderson Island to attend a family reunion. Hey, we’re rural, so these things happen.
There were many reactions to July’s front page photos of the "Nationwide 'No Kings Day' Protest Draws Crowds to Key Center,” with an editorial on page two about asking protesters the same question: “Would you care to share with our readers what compelled you to protest here today?”
Among the most unexpected answers came from a man representing what he called “the other side.” I heard a story from him I hadn’t expected, and it left an impression, as did every other comment from that day.
I heard from MAGA supporters, old-school Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and people who claim to have sworn off politics forever, who said they appreciated our protest coverage.
Things were much different on social media.
Many keyboard warriors suggested the protest in Key Center was national politics and not something KP News had any business putting on the front page, much less covering in a local community newspaper.
We disagree.
Our mission is to reflect the community in which we live as it grows, changes, and evolves. When hundreds of local people gather in Key Center to protest national policies, that’s not only local news.
In July, it was clearly front-page news. The phrase “All politics is local” has been around a long while for good reason, but was popularized by the Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, during his decade-long tenure (1977-1987).
So much of the venom that arises, mostly in the social media universe, is a sad but lingering side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic that I dared hope was beginning to heal locally.
In 2020, we ran photos of the Black Lives Matter protests in Purdy where neighbors confronted each other, sometimes well-armed. When COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in December 2020, we covered a protest of about a dozen people waving signs in Key Center opposing a policy requiring proof of vaccination that the KP Civic Center Association board was considering in order to reopen skate night. The goal was to help young people resume a social life with their friends after public gatherings were restricted to slow the spread of the virus. The policy was not adopted.
What happens in our community affects us all, whether we like it or not.
In the words of poet David Whyte, who lives on Whidbey Island, “The foundation from which we transform the experience of burnout is always the realization that we have for too long mismeasured our sense of self in the same way: that we have allowed the shallow rewards of false goals or false people to mesmerize, bedazzle and entrain us to hide us from an ancient and abiding human dynamic — that we belong to something greater and even better for us than the realm of the measured.”
To visit the KP News archives, go to keypennews.org/eeditions.
UNDERWRITTEN BY THE FUND FOR NONPROFIT NEWS (NEWSMATCH) AT THE MIAMI FOUNDATION, THE ANGEL GUILD, ADVERTISERS, DONORS AND PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT, NONPROFIT LOCAL NEWS
