In the days of yore, when we were governed by kings and queens, if a messenger brought news the monarch didn’t want to hear, they risked their own life.

Thankfully, no one in this country has the power to “shoot the messenger” as happened in those days.

We say thankfully, because there are certain segments of society who certainly would avail themselves of that opportunity if they could.

It seems that whenever a story is written, there are certain people that decide the story was made up out of thin air by the writer. It seems as if they don’t realize that the material covered in news stories comes from places other than the writer.

Newspapers, including this one, get their information from board meetings, sheriff’s offices, the District Attorney’s office and a variety of other places. We never make stories up out of the clear blue sky.

It seems, however, that when there is controversy, the newspaper receives the brunt of the criticism. For some reason, people believe only the news they want printed should be printed. It simply doesn’t work that way.

We all write stories we’d prefer not to, but it’s our job. In a free society, the news must be printed and we’re endeavoring to do that fairly and accurately. We know there are times when the stories aren’t pleasant; we just ask that you don’t proverbially ‘shoot the messenger.’