It is impossible to count the number of times we stop each year to celebrate and commemorate special occasions.

It happens every holiday, anniversary, birthday and graduation. We salute veterans, toast friends, host neighbors, praise children and glorify grandchildren. God-fearing folk pray without ceasing, thankful for their blessings.

This year, I hope you’ll add one more celebration to your list. Oklahoma Newspaper Week is October 6-12, 2024. Take a few moments and pause to appreciate the work of your local newspaper.

Reflect on the times the local newspaper covered local events, helping you commemorate the good and bad times we experience together. In the same way, celebrate an important part of our republic and a founding principle of democracy - a free and independent press.

It is too easy to forget that citizens of this country are constitutionally protected every day by the five freedoms of the First Amendment. Those five freedoms speech, press, worship, petition and assembly are not known in much of the world.

In this country, some people take these freedoms for granted without thinking about the challenges they face every day. We must cherish all five with the same celebration and commemoration as other important events in our life.

It is unfortunate when these freedoms are abused. Social media platforms, in the hands of a responsible individual, can be a force for good. However, often these platforms are tools of destruction for communities, families and relationships. Who hasn’t experienced this situation with social media posts and pages that abuse the freedoms of press and speech?

Research has shown algorithms embedded in social media platforms create addictive behavior. Social media companies capture your online behavior and feed you information to keep you under an undetectable fog of fear, greed and hate.

It is no coincidence that Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has joined 41 other attorneys general to ask legislators to require the U.S. surgeon general to put a warning on algorithmic-driven social media platforms. There is growing scrutiny and understanding that social media companies are playing a role in generational harm to young people’s mental health.

Free speech and free press must be used responsibly. To do otherwise invites legal action. Social media users and page administrators would be well advised to stop allowing or publishing false and libelous statements because lawsuits are now being filed in Oklahoma and elsewhere.

In the past year, I attended the memorial service for several longtime Oklahoma journalists. I am saddened for their families, and I lost friends. I never want to forget that we lost true journalists who worked to make the community a better place to live and work, not a purveyor of algorithmic addictive behaviors and statements harming the world around them.

Local journalists at your newspaper understand the immense responsibility that comes with free speech and press. They are responsive to their communities and are there to help commemorate and celebrate events and activities in your town.

As events in our life pass, we celebrate with fond and familiar phrases. We write ‘Happy Anniversary’ or ‘Happy Birthday.’ We say ‘thank you for your service’ and ‘sorry for your loss.’

During Oklahoma Newspaper Week, I hope we all will pause to celebrate and commemorate free press and free speech and make a personal commitment to use those freedoms responsibly. Just once during the week, I hope you will celebrate your local newspaper with one simple phrase, “Bless the press.”