Taking a journey
from wrongs to rights
We at the newspaper hope you will join us a week from Sunday at Marion Senior Center to honor the memory of Joan Meyer and observe the first anniversary of police raids on our office, her home, and the home of Ruth Herbel.
We debated long and hard about whether to schedule an event featuring the Wichita Eagle’s powerful documentary, singer-songwriter Emily Judson’s moving musical tribute, and a panel of experts talking about implications of the raid.
As people with deep love for this community, we’d just as soon put the whole disastrous experience behind us. The misguided actions of a few should not be allowed to heap condemnation on the many who reject the type of questionable bullying the raids represented.
We hope the anniversary will provide an opportunity for healing and will show to the world that the vast majority of people in Marion and Marion County are not ill-informed, power-mad thugs eager to trample on cherished rights for their own personal glory.
“Where are all the good people?”
Those were among Joan Meyer’s last words. We hope the “good people” will make their presence known and show the world — which, like it or not, is watching — that Marion and Marion County consist of much more than just a few bullies.
Every community contains bad actors. But rather than be known as a place where rights are trampled, we have an opportunity to show the world we’re a place where people come together, and rights are defended.
In a democracy, anytime anyone’s rights are violated, all of us suffer. It’s how we react to wrongs that determines our true spirit.
Small towns are curious phenomena. People often carry grudges, fear retribution, and cower rather than challenge even the most unconscionable acts.
Too many people live in too much fear.
Marion City Library denied us permission to use its facilities for our event because it would be, to the library, “a conflict of interest.”
Sheriff Jeff Soyez, running for re-election, refused to be interviewed for this week’s candidate profiles. He ducked our calls so much that we had to ask Undersheriff Larry Starkey to intervene and ask for his participation on our behalf.
It’s time these and other pieces of pettiness be put aside, and our community moves beyond denial, anger, bargaining, and depression to acceptance.
We hope our event will serve as a springboard for newfound willingness to move forward and to ensure that all of us will do whatever we can to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
We can forever remain a community where rights are trampled or can become a community where concerned citizens march in lockstep to defend everyone’s rights and begin to take steps necessary to ensure that they are protected.
The march starts a week from Sunday.
— ERIC MEYER