Big day, the fourth day of July. It will be Eureka Springs’ 140th birthday, which would practically be our grandma’s age, bless her heart. The United States will be 243, and in relation to most of the world’s countries, that’s a toddler.
It will be our newspaper’s 7th birthday, which in old time newspaper years is nothing, but in being a newspaper at all, is exhilarating. Newspapers are dead, right? The Internet is faster, more current and deeper because everyone, everywhere, relies on it for betting, diagnosis, loan approval and menus.
Each user has five favorite websites, different from their friends’ five different websites, so no one is ever on the same page. When there’s a newspaper that anyone can pick up for free there’s plenty of room for discussion because we all read the same thing – we just interpret it differently. Which makes coffee huddles more animated.
It’s just paper that’s dying, not news. Yes, the Internet ate all the advertising. Craigslist massacred classifieds and social media made anyone a reporter. And yet…
Our business model has always been the same – non-existent. We started doing this despite knowing newspapers are an endangered species. We’re not doing this for any reason other than we enjoy it, and yes, of course we hate being yelled at and not having a retirement plan. So we’re careful. We’re wrong at times, but it’s not because we were lazy or uninformed or mean spirited. It’s because, well, wrong.
One hundred and forty years ago Eureka Springs got itself invaded by non-natives because it held the promise of repaired health and unexplored riches.
The United States was kind of the same. Sure, it would’ve been easier to pay the tea tax and remain part of Mother Empire, but this country was chock full of creative culprits who didn’t realize it would take five years filled with hunger, displacement and disaster before Gen. Cornwallis surrendered to Gen. Washington. That was a big step, but it wasn’t walking.
And we’re the same. We don’t mind dying doing what we’re doing, we just don’t want it to kill us.
One final note – Perlinda’s great-great uncle was Dr. Alvah Jackson, who 140 years ago Thursday stood in Basin Park as a Mr. McKay shouted, “Eureka!”
Come to the parade. Really.