I have never been prouder of being a part – albeit a tiny part – of the Marietta Daily Journal than I am today. The only involvement I have in the production of the paper is getting a semi-coherent column to the editors a couple of times a week on subjects of interest to you the reader. Other than that, I stay out of the way and let the professionals do their job.

The debacle involving Municipal Court Judge Diane Busch and State Sen. John Wiles (R-North Cobb) back in December in which a group of Walker students were busted by the police for underage drinking at Busch’s home in the Marietta Country Club and the subsequent reluctance of the Cobb police officials to release information about that night, all smacks of power and privilege. Not to mention the participants throwing around names like a bean bag to a group of police officers just doing their low-paid job.

Busch’s conduct (holding court after an investigation had begun on her role in the affair, representing one of the students as his lawyer and gulling a young prosecutor into recommending to another judge that her client – a baseball player with a scholarship to Rice University – be allowed to practice baseball as his community service) is a real head-shaker. She doesn’t need a lawyer. She needs a course in Public Relations 101.

What went on the evening of Dec. 22 might have gone away quietly. There are a lot of important people involved and they have the ability to “make things happen.” Not anymore. Looking over comments that have come into the MDJ voters are outraged by the perception that these people play by a different set of rules than do you and I and it is not going away anytime soon.

The Marietta Daily Journal has leveled the playing field. That is what a good newspaper does.

I hear people bemoan the future of newspapers. I don’t. As long as there are people who represent us – whether it is in the Legislature, the Congress or the Court House – and are accountable to us, there will always be a need for somebody to shine the spotlight on them and their actions and remind them that they work for us and not the other way around. That is the job of the local newspaper.

That is what the Marietta Daily Journal has been doing – and doing a damned fine job of it. I am proud to be on the periphery.