Editorials

Funny, we don't feel a day over 21.

Yet, the calendar reports that this newspaper turns 125 years old today.

On Aug. 18, 1883, under the banner, "Anniston Hot Blast," this newspaper was born. The headline for the lead story promised a tale of "pluck, discretion and perseverance." And so it continues.

After several mergers in the early part of the last century, the paper settled on the name currently atop its masthead, The Anniston Star.

On Page 10A today, we have fashioned a tribute to our first name. It's a re-creation, in style and format, of the paper's first edition.

Styles, formats, printing methods and nameplates come and go. What's remained constant is the desire to tell the stories of this community. We've celebrated. We've mourned. We've shocked readers out of benign neglect.

We've told stories of devastating violence at home and abroad. We've reported on the comings and goings of local souls, of births, of deaths, and of large and small achievements. All this fodder for scrapbooks, family Bibles and refrigerator doors represents our common history, a touchstone of our shared humanity.

Such is the task of any newspaper.

In an age when newspapers are increasingly under the control of a few mega media corporations, The Anniston Star remains locally owned. As opposed to so many others, the business of this newspaper is not run from a remote headquarters. Its owners call Anniston home. We believe this makes a difference. We want the best for this community because we are a part of this community.

A quotation from Col. Harry M. Ayers, the paper's publisher and president from 1910 to 1964, has a home on each day's editorial page. It reads, "It is the duty of a newspaper to become the attorney for the most defenseless among its subscribers."

The colonel handed us a daunting challenge. But we do not shrink from our marching orders. This newspaper, 125 years old and counting, plans to work at it for a very long time.