I was born at Hazel Hawkins Hospital, graduated from San Benito High School and grew up reading the Free Lance. Over the years it became more and more apparent that as our community changed, the Free Lance was more than just fossilized, it was decaying.
This community is diverse, but the editorial board was not. This community is majority Latino and there was only one Latino on the nine-member board. This community is majority Democrat, however the board did not reflect that. The board continued to seem like a personal soapbox for old men who had lost touch with reality and this community.
The editorial published in May was inaccurate and distorted. It accused the supporters of Measure J of being deceptive when the editorial board deliberately or unintentionally had misread the Initiative. The paper did a subsequent article that clarified that misinformation. That probably would have been water under the bridge except that the Oil Companies decided to embark in an uncharacteristic recycling effort. They decided to make this misinformation the cornerstone of their campaign against J.
According to the new editorial, the Free Lance asked them to stop recycling this trash but were denied. I am glad that the Free Lance decided to let the community know the truth about the oil companies misinformation. If this is an indication of permanent changes in the Free Lance, then I welcome it and I am ready to begin reading our local paper again.