Just Another "Unruh Brief"
By Tim Unruh
June 1, 2024, address to the Salina League of Women Voters
Please accept my hearty howdy:
It’s been a little bit since I shared oxygen with the League of Women Voters. Standing in front, facing the audience, has never happened until today.
I’m guessing you’d like to be wowed in some way by what I have to say. That’s probably not going to happen, but if we work together, we might just all walk out of here somewhat fulfilled by something, and I’m not talking about cookies.
So I’ll just share with you what has been on my mind since the Salina Journal fired me in 2017 because I was sick too long — rightfully so.
In the seven years since, I have become about the only old-school print journalist carrying a notepad in north-central Kansas. Note to quibblers, I did say “about.”
That’s exactly what has added wrinkles to my forehead, numbers to my hemoglobin a1c, and about 40 pounds to my midsection.
But never mind that blame-game.
What’s perplexing is we are LESS FREE without aggressive, fair, balanced, and NON-PARTISAN local, regional or national media.
Try clinching your fists and stretching out your arms as far as each will go. What’s in your left fist are the extreme liberals, and what’s in your right fist are the extreme conservatives. What is wrapped in both sets of digits are the powers that are currently running our cities, states, and the entirety of the United States of America.
Sure there are some libertarians, independents, and others lurking at each elbow, but the fact is, by my estimation, some 85 percent of our people are congregated in the middle, NOT BEING REPRESENTED!
I can only speak for myself, but within my being are also liberal, conservative, Libertarian, and Independent leanings. I wish to be considered, no matter what ideology I draw from, and it’s un-American to be vilified for my views.
What’s happening now reminds me of when I was 18 and starting college in Garden City, Kansas, I would occasionally take in a house party with my peers. I can remember several of them included greeters at the front door of an apartment or house, asking “Do you Get High?” If the answer was “Yes,” you were directed to the basement to partake in the smoking of whacky tobacky. If you answered “No,” you were allowed to join a half dozen or so on the main floor, sipping 3.2 beer and convincing law enforcement it was a clean gathering. Sometimes I snuck downstairs and faked it, mainly because the conversation was more interesting.
Nowadays, there are events where the Republicans visit in one corner and the Dems meet up in another, so they all have an agreeable audience. The right-wingers tune to Fox News and the Left-wingers watch CNN or CNBC, because that’s where they’re comfortable, and can expect to hear what they believe to the gospel truth. Oddly, the truth is something that flutters all over.
By the way, I want to make it clear that I have NEVER WRITTEN THE TRUTH in my 46 years in journalism, BUT I HAVE SURE AS HELL PURSUED IT. My father always preached that there are three sides to every story — your side, my side and the RIGHT SIDE.
It would be nice if we could all peacefully agree to disagree on some subjects.
But that’s all old stuff. Similar discussions occur around town.
Here’s a little bit about what we’ve missed since community journalism has gone all but belly-up in Salina, and severely diminished the people’s branch of government.
By the way, it’s not because we don’t have media, just that it’s woefully understaffed/underfunded, and there is no time for just a few to really dig into issues. Here’s one hateful GEE-THANKS to the Internet, where some believe everything in cyberspace, just because they read it.
What I’ve heard and-or witnessed recently is included below.
If I have missed any of the explanations I crave, I apologize, but I haven’t been in a coma since March 2017, and have been somewhat in tune:
• I was driving around one morning a few years ago and happened onto a ribbon cutting of sorts over by the city water plant. Local officials were showing off the newfangled trash trucks that cost a fortune. No, I don’t live in the city and can’t judge, but I would like to know how the new gear is performing.
Have we saved on labor? Are the trucks and equipment durable enough? How to locals feel about them?
That’s information that Whitley Austin, Fred Brooks, John Frazier, Paul Harvey, and maybe Jerry Hinrikus might have pursued while serving as media moguls in our midst. Jerry still does.
• I spoke with a local Vietnam Veteran and a professor at Bethany College Saturday, wondering what the fuss was Friday at North Fourth and Antrim streets, not far from the former St. John’s Military School Campus. I’d heard some grumblings about what happened Friday. Then I checked with Salina 311’s Joshua Barnhart. Here is what he was able to piece together online:
“Salina311 was made aware of a heavy police presence on the 1200 block of North 4th Street in Salina earlier today. There are unconfirmed reports suggesting there may be blood visible in the roadway, and photos from the scene appear to show a possible crime scene. However, no official information has been provided to confirm these details.
Salina 311 reached out to the Salina Police Department for clarification. After sending an email and following up with a phone call, Lieutenant Brown of the Salina Police Department stated that no official statement would be made about the situation until Monday morning.
Further details will be reported as they become available and are confirmed.”
Monday was roughly 60 hours after the fact, folks.
I can’t tell you how many times I met with law enforcement on Saturdays and Sundays and gleaned enough hard information to fill up the front page of the Salina Journal (along with comment from witnesses), and there are likely others from the media who have done the same, over and over.
Something terrible happened on that Friday, and local officials decided nobody should know until they were good and ready to share it with the people who pay their salaries.
We do not live in a “reich,” which is German for kingdom.
Why is it that old-timers could forge relationships of trust with our badged heroes worthy of covering something potentially SO serious that people could learn about it just a few hours after it happened? Not DAYS as we are experiencing now.
Granted, I didn’t check with every media outlet concerning the North Fourth Street incident, but Salina 311 was eager to find out, and hit a brick wall of local bureaucracy. If anyone here was informed of this hard breaking news sooner than Monday morning, please let me know, and I will beg forgiveness.
But based on what I know, that angers the heck out of me.
There are other essential moves the local media could and should make, such as knocking on doors in the neighborhood and find people willing to be quoted by name. That might rattle law enforcement enough to move a bit faster. I can tell you the late Sheriff Glen Kochanowski, or former Police Chief Carson Mansfield, and others, would have provided at least some information by Saturday morning.
• We are SO excited that Nex-Tech is bringing top-notch Internet services to our neighborhood north of Salina. But there is a dusty downside. The crew that is tunneling fibre optic cable to our neighborhood has cut our rural water line approximately five times. There should have been a story after the third time, when we first left a couple gallons of water on our kitchen counter, just to flush our toilets.
• I was advised to buy a Fire Stick to stream TV shows, and was told the equipment is on sale at Target. I rushed out and bought one, and found out that our nearly 10-percent sales tax rate more than ate up the savings. It’s my fault for not knowing, but it makes me sick that the cost of living is so high. Public opinion could play a role in putting down pressure on those rates, and folks in the media, some members who regularly editorialize, could also join in the fun.
• Anne Hoekstra, education and outreach coordinator for the Friends of the River Foundation, called me a few weeks back to pitch the Fish Finders event, funded by a Community Impact Grant from the Greater Salina Community Foundation. It was “to get people connected to the river; find out what is living in the river,” she told me, and to prep our youngsters and others for when the River Restoration project kicks into high gear. By 2031 or so, we’ll be able to float the old Smoky Hill channel that is scheduled for cleanup, rehydration, and beautification.
Being swamped with other assignments, I had to turn Anne down. I called her Saturday to inquire if anyone covered the event, and she said there was NO COVERAGE. I felt like such a jerk.
It was just another example of how much community journalism is missed.
• I was so pumped a while back to write about COVID money going to the county to start a Co-Responders program that would allow mental health professionals to accompany law enforcement to emotionally-charged calls, especially where mental health was at risk.
Fast forward to August when I went to my first media briefing at the Salina Police Dept. in a few years, to inquire about the officer-involved shooting death of Jesse Wray July 24 in north Salina.
This young man, whom I’d written about in 2008 when he was saved from drowning at Herington City Lake by Abel Perez, was announced at the funeral service as Jesse’s godfather, truly a high honor from the family. I sat beside Abel at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church, and watched tears trickle down his cheeks.
In the process of researching this very sad story, I quizzed police about the Co-Responder program. One such person is employed by Central Kansas Mental Health, but the other opening has yet to be filled.
I asked the media officer at SPD whether a Co-Responder was on the scene. He said the Co-Responder is only on duty between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and further, this case would not have qualified because of the way it unfolded.
Local media should dive into that issue. Sure makes me wonder if outcomes in these troubled times would be different if there were some way to properly fund this program.
• One morning I was on my way to my pharmacy to re-fill some medications, and I found out getting there was nearly impossible, because of a big marathon race that lured competitors here from all over the country. The route through downtown made getting to B&K Prescription shop difficult, and there were no signs pointing the way. After 30 minutes of driving around, I finally found safe passage, only to find out several employees had to walk to work. I later learned that some heart patients couldn’t get there to re-fill much-needed meds.
An aggressive local media that would not cower to pressure from inept organizers, would have made sure that doesn’t happen again. I tried to make a case on Facebook, but was told to stop trying to soil an event that brings millions of dollars to town. I’m happy for the marathon, but sad in other ways.
• A close friend who has been stricken with a mysterious illness has been trying to get an appointment with a local specialist. After a trip to the ER, he found out that the earliest the specialist could see him was February, 2025. Makes you wonder why we have so few of those experts when the need is so high. I’m concerned that my friend could get worse, or possibly pass away, while he waits.
I wonder what Salina would do with only one or two firefighters, or police officers, if a neighborhood catches fire.
Such shortages used to make the front page courtesy of Joshua Barnhart, or Todd Pittenger, Jeff Garretson, Nathan King and others would lead morning broadcasts with them, IF ONLY THEY KNEW.
These are just a few of the issues and questions that surface as I meander through this great city. Multiply it by 50 such occurrences, which is probably more accurate, and some may also conclude that WE ARE LESS FREE without healthy community journalism in NCKS and throughout our country. We can’t just sit around and wait for Anderson Cooper of 60 Minutes to Fly United to north-central Kansas, but I would love to meet him.
This is not my excuse to drag our current media through the mud. I have been blessed to meet a number of enthusiastic notepad-toting reporters who are eager to report and learn. Just keep in mind that when I invaded Salina’s sanctity in the spring of 1999, I was one of 10 reporters in the Salina Journal newsroom, and the nine others and a host of editors and other newspaper veterans, could collectively account for a century of experience.
I acknowledge that a rebirth of sorts is taking place here, and the media at present, and YES I AM A PART OF IT, is comparatively in more of a fledgling state. I’m sure the SJ or its predecessor, was lacking in the 1890s, more than its heyday in the 1960s through the early 1990s.
I would like to thank Anne Hoekstra for taking the time to visit with me Saturday, and providing my closing quote from Joseph Pulitzer.
OUR REPUBLIC AND IT’S PRESS WILL RISE AND FALL TOGETHER
Thanks for listening to what used to be dubbed “just another Unruh brief.”
NOW, HOW ABOUT SOME DISCUSSION.