What Bubble?

Last Wednesday, shortly after last week’s issue of this paper went to press, a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, where certification of the presidential election was underway. When my spouse came downstairs to tell me what had happened, I was sitting with my laptop writing about a different presidential transition – the one that had recently taken place at the Swarthmore Senior Citizens Association. It took me a few minutes to wrest my mind from the smaller, local realm to the larger one.

At this newspaper, we usually engage national news only insofar as it affects our local community. But how can I be a newspaper editor and not write a word about what happened on January 6 in Washington D.C.? My hometown, as it happens. Swarms of citizens storming the Capitol, weaponizing flag poles and fire extinguishers. Lawmakers taking shelter under conference tables in barricaded rooms. Some police pulling aside barriers and snapping selfies with rioters. The president railing against the “corrupt” media and asserting that thousands of dead Pennsylvanians cast ballots.

What is the job of a small community newspaper? What are our responsibilities? Should any newspaper editor anywhere in America ignore, as I have, the lies of the president of the United States and many members of his party? Now we see what such lies, and ignoring them, lead to.

I’d like to believe that no one in this community believes those lies. But I know that some do. 

I’d like to believe that no one in this community ever tried to discourage a lawful voter from voting at a polling place. But I’ve heard stories. 

Sometimes people say living here is living in a bubble. I’ve said it myself. But Swarthmore isn’t really a bubble. The problems of America – the way the deck is stacked in favor of the wealthy, the deep structures and casual deployment of racism, how easy it is not to see other people’s pain – those are our problems too. 

Closing our eyes to truth, turning away from each other, and being unable to imagine the experiences of people different from ourselves: Those are three of the failures that made January 6 possible. All three are direct concerns of a community newspaper.

Swarthmore has changed a lot in the decades I’ve lived here, and more changes are on the way. Every moment of change is an opportunity to embrace or turn away from doing better by the people we live among. As we move into a new year and a new presidential administration, here in the borough we’ll also be choosing a new school superintendent, taking steps to realize our pledge of reaching 100% renewable energy by 2030, and considering changes to our downtown. As we do these things, I hope we’ll stay alert to the needs of those living in small apartments as well as in spacious Victorians; to our neighbors of color, some of whom I’ve heard second-guessing their decision to raise their kids here; and to senior citizens wondering if they’ll be able to live out their days in a place they love.

Compared with saving American democracy, these goals are pretty modest. But they’re difficult enough.

Rachel Pastan
Editor