Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech of the press... First Amendment. Controversy over freedom of speech never involved the right to say or to print things that a majority of people already believed. It is the right to say unpopular, unorthodox, or unconventional things, which is really at issue. That is why it is no accident that freedom of the press was guaranteed in Amendment Number One. Systems of government, even in free, democratic countries, are prone to corruption. And when corruption becomes entrenched, a dogged, independent press can be a nation's or village's saving grace. The press, the radio, television and the cinema are indispensable to the survival of democracy. A free press is the WD-40 of democracy, the lubricant that keeps the system running. For generations, reporters have reveled in the role of muckraker defined by Webster as "one who exposes real or apparent misconduct or vice or corruption on the part of prominent individuals and public officials." From Ida Tarbell's groundbreaking turn-of-the-century series on the misdeeds of Standard Oil, to Charles Moore's searing photographs of the civil rights struggle, to Seymour Hersh's exposure of the horrors perpetrated at My Lai, to Woodward and Bernstein's unraveling of the Watergate scandal - the best of American journalism has taken as its rallying cry from Jonathan Swift to "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." It is this sort of rigorous and spirited reporting that the Gold Coast Gazette and the Glen Cove Record Pilot have provided. I admire their courage, and thank them for their devotion to the principles of democracy. The value of society of free inquiry and unrestricted search for truth has been recognized and proclaimed by thinkers throughout the ages. As recently as six decades ago, every democratic country could boast of a great number of small journals and local newspapers. Thousands of country editors expressed their independent opinions. Somewhere or another almost anybody could get almost anything printed. Today the press is still legally free, but most of the little papers have disappeared. We are fortunate to have two local independent newspapers. We must do everything we can to support and maintain them, to ensure their survival. We must oppose anyone who advocates their demise or attempts to control their contents. Our local governments and residents must be willing to tolerate the sometimes foolish and sometimes disagreeable articles and editorials not because they prove true, although some may, but because freedom of the press is guaranteed. In a democracy Liberty cannot be denied to some persons and extended to others. In a free press it cannot be denied to some ideas and extended to others. The reason is plain enough: no man, no committee, and surely no government has the infinite wisdom, disinterested accuracy and unselfishness to separate what is true from what is debatable, or from what is false. To give one license to impose his truth on dissenters is to give the same license to all others who would do the same, but fear the loss of power. The risk that harm will occur from the dissemination of false ideas is a lesser danger than the risk that truth will be suppressed by the censor's power. That is why Don Cavanaugh, esq. I cannot agree with your proposal that we should no longer support the Gold Coast Gazette, and it should no longer be the official newspaper of the village, as you proposed on June 5, at the town's meeting. An independent press is indispensable to the survival of our village democracy. We can improve our democratic processes, we can enlighten our understanding of its problems, and we can increase our respect for those men of integrity who find it necessary, from time to time, to act contrary to public opinion. But we cannot solve the problems of legislative independence and responsibility by abolishing or curtailing democracy (freedom of the press). For democracy means more than popular government and majority rule, more than a system of political

Dr. P.J. Gorski