Free At Last

"Free at last, free at last.  Thank God Almighty we are free at last!"  -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm not so arrogant as to think I'm anywhere in the vicinity of someone like Dr. King.  They won't be naming streets in bad parts of town after me, people won't be taking my birthday off from work, and stores won't be holding special white sales on sheets and towels in my name each February.

But I dig his message.

For the last year, I've been living my own quiet version of bondage (and not the good kind, like you see late at night on Cinemax).

When Cindi Delaney and I sold the Mesquite Local News in 2009 to Stephens Media, the parent company of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, I had to sign a contract.  It didn't involve any first-born children or blood oaths over a bubbling cauldron, but I was prohibited from working for any other newspaper in town for one full year after departing their employ.

That day of departure came in June of 2011 when my two-year contract ended.

So for the next full year, this local Mesquite newspaper writer was not allowed to write for any local newspaper in Mesquite.

I was the one who signed the contract, so I can't whine too much.  But think of it this way: you're a French fry cooker at McDonalds.  After you get canned because the assistant hamburger assembler doesn't like you, you're barred from making French fries down the street at Jack In The Box.

Extrapolate that any way you want.

My "emancipation" came last week, when the one year anniversary of my departure arrived and my non-compete clause expired.  So now I'm free.  And like the dog that finally caught the car...now what?

The news landscape in Mesquite is different.

First, the Desert Valley Times has a new editor.  Things haven't changed much there, which is to be expected from a property owned by the Gannett anti-news mega-corporation, a company that seems to consider things like bunions to be worthy of front-page coverage in their USA Today.

Then you have Mesquite Local News, which is just a shell of the vibrant news source Cindi, Sue Hurley and I founded.  The less I say about that paper, the less likely I'll be sued.  (Remember, Stephens Media helped found RIghthaven, the group that once sued a little old lady for using part of a copyrighted story on her blog about cats.)  I'm just sayin'.  Also, there are still some good people there who have survived despite a constant corporate stick across the brow.

Which leaves the newest entry in the Mesquite news merry-go-round: Mesquite Citizen Journal.

It's run by a real journalist, a woman I've respected for years because of her fierce dedication to finding and telling the truth. 

If I was going to get back into the news business (like the guy with the hangover, I swore I was never going to do THAT again), her online newspaper was the only place I could see myself.

But the truth is, the MCJ doesn't need me.

It already has a top-notch editor in Barbara Ellestad, and her investigative reporting is every bit as good as anything I had ever done back at "that other newspaper." 

She is complemented by John Taylor, another former Mesquite Local News alum, who has become a tremendous writer in his own right.

Her lineup of weekly columnists is like a "who's who" of the best MLN had to offer, including Betty Haines, Mike McGreer, Terry Donnelly, and Susan Lang, with the extra bonus of newcomer Mike Young.

Fortunately, for some reason Barb figured she needed someone on staff who could start every sentence with "back in my day." (As I learned from my time at Stephens Media, apparently it's a critical position in corporate news hierarchies.)

She asked.  I accepted.

So here I am, back in my favorite role -- writing a weekly humor column, something I started all the way back in 2004 when I was with the DVT, and continued throughout my time at MLN.

Of course, as I mentioned, the landscape has changed.  Holecheck is gone.  Ence is gone.  Hacker is gone.  Can I still be funny without that cast of characters? (Which I used to consider the comedic equivalent of shooting over a baited field).

I don't know.  Let's find out. 

Strap in, hold on, and enjoy the ride.