By LAURA HAMMACK, guest columnist

If our esteemed editor will afford me the space, I believe this column serves as my second to last. Sometimes I struggle with topics to write and sometimes the words flow quite easily. This column has been hard to write because I want to give it the justice it is due.

I have wanted to write a column on this topic for a while; however, I worried about a potential negative perception of my motivation. However, now that I am in the transition process from this school district to another, I am not concerned about any perceptions of impropriety about this column’s topic. By not being in this position anymore, no one should think that this column is written with the hope that I would gain any personal benefit.

As such, I am honored to write this column in celebration of one of the most important organizations in our community, the Brown County Democrat.

I am absolutely humbled by what the Brown County Democrat produces on a weekly basis. Their team is small and mighty. However, in a time when metropolitan and national newspapers are littered with watered-down pieces, the Brown County Democrat doubles down on that condition to offer our community poignant, accurate, sincere and nuanced articles that speak life into the people, systems and organizations that make this community thrive.

I have always loved a local newspaper. When I was a little girl, my first job was the paper “boy” for the Sun Herald, a weekly local newspaper. I hated the early mornings, but loved the time spent walking the neighborhood with my dad (my dad wouldn’t let his little girl walk the neighborhood alone). Our hands would be black with ink by the time we would get home and wouldn’t ever totally wash off. I remember sitting at my desk in school looking at the black around my fingernails like it was yesterday.

Even though I was the paper boy, I had no appreciation for what was poured into the creation of those smelly, inky newspapers. Even when I became superintendent of this school district and understood that the superintendent had used column space to share with the community about the happenings in the local schools, I was initially just grateful to be afforded the platform to communicate. That is until I sat down to write my first column. Ugh!

When I started writing columns every other week, I developed a profound appreciation for what is created by the incredible editor and SMALL team of reporters and staff at our local paper. I have found writing a column every other week is very hard work. I struggle with using way too many words and my paragraphs are usually too long. However, our editor of the Brown County Democrat, the amazing Sara Clifford, affords me incredible grace with her magical editing.

There were times when our local paper published pieces on the schools that we were very excited to read and made us very proud. There were also times when I wasn’t very excited to read what had been covered. However, what I found most important — and this is the extraordinary power of sincere journalism — is that our local paper holds us accountable by telling the stories that we might rather not tell ourselves while simultaneously sharing in celebrations of the stories that make a place a community.

Information is truly power, and the Brown County Democrat speaks truth weekly for their readers.

I have wept, as I imagine you have too, when I read some of the incredible stories captured by Sara Clifford and Suzannah Couch. They are both able to connect with the spirit of the reader in a way that makes me feel like they are writing directly to me. I know they aren’t, but a truly talented journalist is able to make that happen with the way they craft their words. I marvel at their work and am so grateful that the Brown County Democrat exists to elevate and celebrate our community and hold us accountable all the while.

I am so grateful for this small and mighty paper and offer my sincere thanks for the opportunity to read “our” paper every week and been a contributor in the Superintendent’s Corner column over the last five years. Thank you, Sara, Suzannah and team. You are as good as it gets. I’ll forever stand in awe of the miracle you make happen every week. Bravo.

Laura Hammack is superintendent of Brown County schools. She can be reached at 812-988-2221 or [email protected].