Let me clarify something about last week’s column

First off, let me clarify something about last week’s column regarding the death of former Whitley County Judge-Executive and Jailer Jerry Taylor.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

I have since realized that there were a number of people, who took offense to the Jerry Taylor story I mentioned about his father being a bootlegger, and the time Jerry hid his dad’s booze in the woods while the federal or state law enforcement guy went on lecturing Jerry’s dad in another room.

Please know that this wasn’t intended in any way to be derogatory towards Jerry or his family, and I sincerely apologize if it was taken as such.

This was a story that I personally heard Jerry tell multiple times over the years and he always told it with a big smile on his face. It never struck me that anyone would take offense to me repeating it.

The fact that Jerry used to tell this story I think told you a lot about his personality. He wasn’t ashamed of where he came from. He could laugh at himself. I think he also used to tell that story to make himself more relatable to every day voters as someone, who didn’t come from a life of privilege like most of them.

Again, if I offended anyone with this story in last week’s column then I am sorry.

Someone asked me last week why there wasn’t more positive stuff about Jerry in the obituary story.

To me the fact that Jerry served 24 years as judge-executive spoke volumes about his career. You don’t get elected that much as judge-executive unless you have done things for people and had a pretty good record of success.

The purpose of my column last week was to accompany the news story and to also provide some positive insights about Jerry to balance out the news story.

As I wrote last week, you didn’t have to spend too much time around Jerry to figure out why he kept getting elected as he came across as likable and funny when you met him.

To his credit, Jerry was a great politician. As I wrote in last week’s column, if you put him in a “Survivor” type competition with the top Whitley County politicians of all time, then he probably would have placed at least in the top three if he didn’t win the whole thing.

In regards to some criticism that the news media shouldn’t write bad things about elected figures after they die because of their loved ones. I have to respectfully disagree.

We’ve had other elected figures in the past, who got indicted before leaving office and had other legal woes, such as being forced to resign from an office. We’ve written about them when they died, and there will be others we write about in the future. History is history whether we like it or not. It is part of their legacy.

Aside from running the local elementary school honor roll, the truth is that most things journalists write about are things that upset someone. Everyone has a mother and father. Many have children, nephews, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Do we not report about a DUI because it will embarrass the suspect’s wife? Do we ignore writing about the businessman caught embezzling from the local pension fund because it will upset his children?

I think you get the idea.

You will probably find this hard to believe coming from a journalist, but I really wish that our elected leaders never got into legal or ethical hot water. Seriously, it would make my job a whole lot easier.

I wish that all of our elected officials left a record and legacy where there was nothing but positive things to write about.