I like walking through cemeteries. I even have books on the subject, ranging from the significance of certain markings on tombstones to the different styles and shapes of markers to the various sentiments and histories that are written on the faces of the stones.

Why so early?  Snowbird and Cherokee County has a long way to travel.

Throughout the centuries, newspapers, along now with other forms of media, have been the purveyors of information to the public. The Cherokee people recognized the need for a way for the actions of the government to be communicated early on.

Have you noticed that about this time in every election year (and again just prior to the November primaries), there are a parade of candidates for town, county, and state positions that ask for time before Tribal Council’s cameras?

We spend money, time, and energy to create plans and make decisions, but we are slow to follow through. Being cautiously slow can be a good thing; being slow because we cannot get consensus or politics invades is not.

On April 5, the vote taken in Tribal Council to ban all outside media is quite disturbing; all council members voted for the ban except for one.

It is easy to take the place you live for granted. I have lived in the mountains of western North Carolina most of my life. As a good friend and former coworker used to say, I have fished these streams and walked these trails all my life.

The cause of a free and open press took a hit last week, albeit a symbolic one, in the Tribal Council Chambers on Thursday, April 5.