An Intervention at the Harper Bee

We got a bunch together to go down to the Harper Bee, our local newspaper, to talk to Frankie Grunt, the owner/editor, about her reporting. Lately she has lived up to her name and is just too frank about what she's printing. There weren't a particular organization to our little intervention. Here's how it came about.

There were five of us. Mary Lou Heck was carrying a gift all wrapped up with a red bow, which I found out is Frankie's favorite color. The rest of us just brought our thoughts. I reckon Frankie suspected we were there to honor her in some way with the gift because she welcomed us with a broad smile.

Jasper Smootway started with a little talk about with freedom comes responsibility.

I told Frankie how important her paper was to our community.

Mavis Stampfoot discussed the ears and eyes of our children.

Harpoon Smith didn't say anything. He just stood there with that head deacon stare he is so good at.

Mary Lou presented her gift. It turned out to be a book entitled A Complete Guide to Euphemistic Insults.

When we finished, Frankie looked us each one in the eye and said, "My daddy left me this newspaper and I plan to run it any way I see fit."

Harpoon Smith spoke up. He explained in his deep bass voice that if he saw one more example of bad language or graphic reporting of wrecks and death, he would cancel his weekly, half-page advertisement for his lumber yard.

At that Frankie said she would reconsider her approach to newspaper publication and take more responsibility in using her freedom of the press.

We'll see.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle