Outraged over Albertson's lawsuit

I am disappointed and outraged by the legal actions taken by Gary Albertson, owner of the Cook News Herald and Tower News against The Timberjay, a high quality, award-winning small town paper. I value The Timberjay with its colorful photographs, factual and informative articles, and well written, thoughtful , and knowledgeable opinion pieces. They are quite a contrast from the editorial in the competing newspaper in which President Obama was called “a joke” and ridiculed for “putting a man in the ladies’ bathroom,” a comment that is offensive and insulting to transgender persons or any of us who understand what it means for a person to be transgender.

Cook and Tower are small towns. We all know one another. Instead of an unsubstantiated frivolous lawsuit, wasting so much time and money, the focus should be on making our communities attractive in drawing in new residents and in establishing successful businesses. Quality newspapers are one tool to support that goal. I applaud Marshall Helmberger and Jodi Summit for their contributions to community improvement as well as developing such a high quality newspaper.

As I said, we all know one another. I question the motives of my neighbor on the lake in his decision to file this damaging and unnecessary lawsuit. I am a retired college professor in education as well as a retired therapist in mental health. My career was spent coaching students and clients to understand motives and goals behind their lessons or behaviors. We reflected on the intent behind choices. I ask the neighbor on the lake to reflect on his decision to file an unsubstantiated lawsuit on the other small town newspaper. I ask him to understand his motives behind these actions. And I remind him, this is a small town. We all know one another. We are all important parts of our communities. In our small towns, we support one another. We do not destroy each other.

Dr. Ellie Larmouth

Tower, Minn.