By Ken Robinson

Managing Editor

Dad bought the White Center News in 1952 when I was 8 years old. I had two brothers, Mike and Tim with two more to follow in the early 50s. (Dad’s nickname was Swift Family Robinson).

Dad began developing a dream of owning five newspapers, one for each son. In the process, we all became indentured servants. We were Printer’s Devils, cut copies of ads from the paper and rubber-cemented them to a ‘tear sheet’ and deliver then to cooperating merchants. We had paper routes and because Dad owned the place, we had to make sure we delivered in all kinds of weather. In our early teens, we took on office duties in the circulation department and at certain times, solicited advertising from local merchants.

The way kids copy their parents, we noticed that both Mom and Dad tapped away on a typewriter often and their typing became columns in the newspaper. That looked like fun so at at age 9, I wrote a column and Dad published it.

Here it is:

Since 1952, we have owned papers in Federal Way, Des Moines, SeaTac, Burien, White Center, West Seattle and Ballard. Our company employed about 400 people at our peak in 1989 when Dad chose to sell and retire.

During those years, I wrote many columns, tending toward the light-hearted an humorous, the way Mom and Dad showed me. There has always been opportunity to write opinion pieces about politics and politicians. But we eschewed that because we believe there is enough noise in the community now greatly amplified by blogs and other so-called ‘media outlets’ on the internet.

There are still some traditional, reasoned voices out there and we look for them. They are principally in what has been dubbed the Mainstream Media so much vilified by Donald Trump.

These voices are those men and women who actually think when they write and present us with facts upon which we are supposed to come to some understanding.

Like  you, I have an opinion about current events and the actors in them. But those opinions are private and not meant to sway anyone. That is why I don’t write about politics.