A Word On Print Size, Politics And Purpose

We hear you loud and clear — the font size has been too small for the last two weeks. It looked readable on screen, but in print it just wasn’t cutting it.

This week’s edition is back to our former font size, 10-point, and we have reconfigured the layout for the narrower paper to ensure the press doesn’t have to reduce the pages. Last week’s readers will recall that we had to use a 22-inch page width instead of our normal 24-inch width due to a newsprint shortage. That means each newspaper page was one inch narrower than usual.

We welcome feedback. Please let us know your thoughts so we can make adjustments going forward.
I was thankful for a visit last Friday from a longtime subscriber who had some questions. The extensive coverage of Rahm Emanuel’s visit to Water Valley in last week’s edition had him scratching his head. He wanted to know if I am a liberal or a conservative. Those labels seem more important than ever these days.

He wanted more transparency, and that’s a fair request — especially when it comes to reporters and potential ingrained bias.

The short answer is this: when it comes to national politics, I try to avoid sharing my personal views as part of news coverage in the Herald. The buzzword in the business is hyperlocal. Our goal is to provide news from Water Valley and Yalobusha County that you will not see in any other media outlet in the world.

There are thousands of media outlets offering every opinion imaginable about national politics. And the funny thing is, most of our minds are already made up. A column in the Herald — or a Facebook post — isn’t going to change the world, or even a mind.

So what about the extensive coverage of Emanuel’s visit?

That question is easy to answer. Any potential presidential candidate who comes to stump in a small town is newsworthy. Period.

But we still haven’t answered the deeper question the reader posed.

So I’ll answer it this way.

I take comfort in Paul’s words that a believer’s citizenship is in heaven. Writing to the church in Philippi, Paul made it clear:

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
— Philippians 3:20

For a believer, that truth transcends earthly politics. Anything of man is inherently flawed — starting with the fall in Genesis 3.

Paul also had guidance for how believers are to live in relation to governing authorities:

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.”
— Romans 13:1

Whether times are good or not so good, Paul’s divinely inspired words still apply today.

A believer, you might ask? Tell me what you believe.

I believe Jesus is the way.

It’s stated plainly in John 14:6, where Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

That is the good news — the gospel.

Paul breaks it down in what’s often called the resurrection chapter of his letter to the church in Corinth:

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:3–4

This is the gospel, and salvation — redemption — comes by faith.

“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
— Romans 10:9

It almost sounds too simple.
But I am thankful to know that faith rests not on my work, but on His grace, His assurance, His promises, and His work on the cross.

And as for that earlier question?

I honestly skipped that part on the ballot.