Have I ever mentioned the Sun Day is not the first publication I’ve owned/produced/managed? It’s actually the third. The first two, crafty little “zines” called Signature Lit and (the melodramatic) Poetic Thoughts I produced out of my parents basement when I was 18 and 19 years old and probably broke about two dozen copyright laws between the both of them. They were well-received among family and friends and were distributed locally at Borders and Barnes & Noble (although I don’t think either store knew they distributed them), with a grand total circulation of about 30.
The Sun Day’s total circulation is a little over 6,000, with a readership of approximately 13,000. So, yeah, you could say my printing and publishing efforts grew a bit since I used my own computer printer and the long-reach stapler my mother borrowed from the school she worked at to produce those primitive “rags” I called publications.
But they got me on my way to my first job in newspapers, which was almost an accident and not unlike those stories you hear about a friend who accompanies another friend to an audition for “moral support” and ends up landing the role himself.
Heading into our third year of college, my best friend and I opted for a transfer to Columbia College in Chicago, him coming from DePaul University, I coming from Oakton Community College. Columbia College is one of the great fine arts schools in the country, and my friend was heading there for journalism and I for fiction writing.
Shortly before the fall term began, my friend called me up and said he was going down to the campus to see about getting a job on the Columbia Chronicle, the school’s newspaper, and wanted to know if I wanted to come with. Sure, I had nothing better to do, and, moreover, working for a newspaper was on my mind as of late, as I recently learned all the authors I looked up to at one time or another worked on newspapers. Obviously they knew what they were doing, so why shouldn’t I take their lead. I grabbed a copy of Signature Lit (not Poetic Thoughts) and away we went.
I had absolutely no experience in newspapers and practically failed my high school journalism class, so getting a job on the Columbia Chronicle, which rakes in awards almost by the dozen each year, was practically out of the question.
Much to my surprise, the editor in chief, a nervous and fidgety little guy, hired me as a copy editor. I soon rose to an acting editor when the position opened and after that position was filled by someone permanent, I became an editor of my own section. But for as successful as my career was at the Columbia Chronicle, it was short-lived, as I quit shortly after winter break to open a restaurant … of all things. But that’s a different story.
What matters is that working at the Columbia Chronicle instilled a love for newspapers. I learned many valuable lessons there and most of all developed my journalistic integrity.
Frankly, I love just about everything to do with newspapers, from the function they play in their respective communities down to the smell and feel of the paper. Moreover, they’re a tangible thing and not made of bits and pixels.
My favorite thing about newspapers is their names. Day, Times, Register, Globe, Telegram, Liberty, Hawker, Mail. And the list goes on. But in my opinion, the most accurate name of any newspaper is one that uses Mirror in their masthead because a good newspaper is exactly that: a reflection of the life and times of the community it serves.
Of course, I selected Sun Day because it is a crafty name and has obvious parallels to Sun City. But Mirror, although not my favorite sounding, is my favorite because it enforces the Sun Day’s unofficial motto: If it happens in Sun City, it happens in the Sun Day, which is also another way of saying, “Hey, I don’t make the news, I just report it.”
Which leads me to some of the current issues in Sun City and the Sun Day’s responsibility in reporting them to you, dear readers. In the pages that follow, you are going to read both highly informative news stories and, in some cases, very charged and sensitive Letters to the Editor about the increase in property taxes and the variance between Kane and McHenry County homes and also on the matter of the board renting space to Community Christian Church.
Please understand that, especially in the case of the church renting space in Sun City, the Sun Day is simply to be considered your conduit for news information and takes no official stand on the matters at hand. We do, however, support your right to communicate your opinions to each other on a large scale and to bring you the news.
Occasionally, though, a newspaper, and the Sun Day is no exception, prints material that does offend either a whole or a part of its readership, which was the case with the April 21 edition, when we published a short story titled “Good Friday” by M.A. Weissmann. “Good Friday” was submitted to the Sun Day as a work of fiction and not as an actual or accurate account of the Crucifixion. We do apologize, however, if our publishing this story offended any of our readers, as that never was nor ever will be the Sun Day’s intentions.
Chris La Pelusa
Managing Editor
