Original views on life from rural America

Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

After last Friday's raid on the "Marion County Record," a family-owned newspaper covering a county situated approximately 60 miles north of Wichita, I am worried that freedom of the press - a fundamental principal of democracy - may be eroding in rural America.

Since Sunday, I've scoured every news report covering the raid, which included all five members of Marion's police department and two county deputies. The agencies seized everything: computers, personal phones, bank...