The Tomato Picker- Opinion by Stew Richland

Here is another take on the Joy Vestal situation. Read and enjoy.

The other day I was in our local Publics grazing through the vegetable section of the market. I was watching one of the employees replenish the tomato bin. I noticed an elderly lady approach the pile of tomatoes and began to slowly pick up one slicing tomato at a time. She examined each as if she was selecting a diamond. She held each orange object
up to the light, touched gently, brought it to her nose and gently placed in back in the bin. This went on for at least five minutes. And then she reached into the middle of the stack, pushed some rejects aside, and picked up this big, round, orange-red object and in a split second her eyes lit up, she began to smile and then gently placed this prized specimen into
an open plastic bag with a look of triumph on her face. She had picked a winner. How did she know it was a winner? Years of experience had paid off. Her day at the market was a success.

This vignette reminds me of how the UCO Reporter is now run by the editor and her staff. Keeping us in the veggie section, instead of picking tomatoes we are picking cherries. Cherry picking is like confirming a bias it is the tendency of people to seek out only facts that fit their pre-existing views, which lead to cherry picking. When used figuratively as it is in this article, it refers to selective extraction of points in an argument in order to
refute or affirm them while ignoring others which will not support the point(s) being made.

Based on recent events within the Reporter we have to question the leadership and the editorial policies they support. They encourage contributions, but their filters seem biased to say the least. The impulse to censor is as old as the impulse to create. People have a tendency censor ideas based on their own political views, their loyalties, their
morality or their version of the truth.

I urge readers who are concerned about censorship, within or without our Village, read Robert Darnton's book: Censors at Work, How States Shaped Literature. He references that in 1722 Paris, all publications carried the, "approbation and privilege of the King." it seems to me that the same censorship is at play 2015 Century Village. According to Darnton, these approbations qualify as censorship because it was approved by the editor
or the President. In addition, in the 1750's a new term found its way into the body- politick: Bureaucracy. It became a complex labyrinth of clerks and editors in filtering out what is to be published and what is unpopular. Clearly, supervision by those in control, whatever their tangled motives are, it is unfair to the readership of the Village. In a democracy all views should be expressed. Let the truth be told,