When this paper hits your front doorstep, mailbox, inbox, or browser, I should be safely landed in America’s other Washington — occupied Washington, D.C. — for a journalism conference. I’m packing now and thinking of you, dear readers, while wrestling with unease.
Here’s the truth: Our town of La Conner is an excellent example of the American dream — citizens who care for each other, who show up for town meetings about sidewalks and zoning, who fund a local paper together because they know democracy and connection are fragile — and I’m traveling to our nation’s capital, a place that no longer shines as a symbol of those very values. With the president’s deployment of the National Guard into D.C. and his threat to send troops into any city led by his political rivals, we’ve crossed the line from “sliding into authoritarianism” to living with authoritarian rules.
Historians will not have to dig hard for the evidence: the construction of a domestic detention camp in Alligator Alcatraz; the re-use of a WWII Japanese incarceration site for unlawful holds; the crackdown on free speech that dismantles settled law, even over something as symbolic as flag burning; the spectacle of federal troops occupying American cities not for safety, but for political theater.
It is against this backdrop that I head to the capitol to share the story of La Conner Community News with my sisters at the Journalism and Women Symposium, where I will also take a seat on the national board.
And what a story we have to share, of people so committed to community that you pooled your money to save a newspaper. That fills me with pride and a responsibility I carry with both hands to make this paper worthy of you.
I’ll be looking for ways to bring back ideas that make us stronger: deeper coverage that matters, authentic ways to engage with each other civically, a higher bar for truth and accuracy in an era where AI and the internet corrode public trust in facts.
Still, the question looms — the same one I ask myself every week: How do I lead a publication that informs and empowers a small town while American democracy itself is under siege?
Why does what is happening in the “other” Washington have to do with daily life in La Conner? National decisions ripple here. Our preschool opened a month late because federal education funds were withheld. Neighbors traveling abroad have faced sudden visa restrictions tied to trade disputes. Immigrant families in the valley live under constant surveillance, relying on social media to learn where ICE patrols are, arranging grocery deliveries to avoid the terror of raids. The post office and Tillinghast are scrambling after 24 countries cut off parcel shipments to the U.S. And with leadership in chaos at the CDC, we can’t even know when the next COVID vaccine will arrive or who will have access to it when it does. In a community filled with seniors, the availability of these vaccines matters.
Of course, none of these are as obviously authoritarian as federal troops on the ground in an American city that is neither active with riots or terrorism. But they are noticeable ways decisions made in the other Washington have begun intruding upon La Conner’s gentle lifestyle. In a larger context, it’s why this paper and its commitment to democracy and civic engagement matters: Not just as a reflection of our town, but as a bulwark against despair.
As I travel to Washington, I carry your voices with me. May we remind our nation’s capital what democracy still looks like — because here in La Conner, we practice it daily.
Kari Mar is the editor and publisher of La Conner Community News.
