Georgia First Amendment Foundation honors Sally Bethea - Rough Draft Atlanta

Given my birthdate, it’s no surprise that I’m “old school” when it comes to keeping files of news clippings. My young staff at Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) never understood why I thought I needed to have hard copies of the articles published about our river advocacy work. “It’s in your computer files or searchable on the internet,” they’d say. I’d just smile and keep filing the paper.

I have a five-inch ring binder filled with print media from the 1990s and 2000s covering CRK’s years-long battle to force the city of Atlanta to stop dumping sewage into the river and neighborhood streams. When I wrote my book (“Keeping the Chattahoochee”), the binder was instrumental in helping me reconstruct the chronology of the twists and turns of that issue. Few of the old articles were digitally archived. I felt enormously vindicated for being a hard copy hoarder.

Persisting and Growing

Not surprisingly, I also have a file of my monthly columns written over the past nine years for Atlanta Intown: paper copies I can read while holding them in my hands. Yeah, old school. I rifled through the columns this week, proud to be a part of the team that monthly produces hyperlocal and eclectic stories about people, places, and issues—and has done so for the past thirty years. Happy 30th Anniversary to Atlanta Intown and all of you readers!

Collin Kelley, Intown’s editor, has been a dream to work with over the years. He puts up with my (always) last-minute submissions and lets me write about any environmental topic I choose. In more than 100 columns, I’ve covered hurricanes, fireflies, parks, the climate crisis, Atlanta’s tree canopy, the Okefenokee, my father’s garden, forever chemicals, pandemic grief and nature, microbeads, fatbergs, negative ions, rainwater harvesting, and the local food movement—to name a few.

Not for the first time, I realize how lucky I am to be able to write for this respected paper, now part of the growing Rough Draft Atlanta family of publications. Four years ago, Keith Pepper became Intown’s publisher. He transitioned the monthly print community newspaper into a digital-first media organization and leveraged partnerships throughout the city to help people make connections—for work and entertainment.

Free Speech, Open Government

On Oct. 21, I received one of the highest honors in my career when the Georgia First Amendment Foundation presented me with the Charles Weltner Freedom of Information Award. The foundation, which advocates for government transparency, free speech rights, and access to public information, is also celebrating its 30th anniversary this year—as is Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. Clearly, 1994 was a great year for start-ups!

When I accepted the award, I told the audience that the success of CRK’s advocacy depends on two essential groups of professionals: investigative journalists and public interest environmental lawyers with access to government records. Without them, we would not have been able to tackle, much less win, our toughest battles. Our accomplishments have depended on our ability to exercise our right to free speech, our ability to access and review information held by public agencies, and the press exercising its right to publish these facts.

Uncensored information about the world around us and opinion pieces—even and especially those that are critical—help ensure public policy decisions that are fair, democratic, inclusive, and accountable. Hard-working journalists (print, radio, television, and social media) help uncover the inequities in our society, corruption, and activities that threaten our families and communities. Their independence is fundamental to democracy and must be defended.

Shining a Light

During my years with CRK, it wasn’t hard to find stories to illustrate why the overhaul of the city’s sewer system was crucial, or to find good reporters, willing publishers, and graphic illustrations of those problems and many others.

In the late 1990s, an Associated Press reporter joined us on a river patrol. It was a lovely day on the water, until the city accidentally spilled 800,000 gallons of raw sewage into the river, literally in front of our boat. That story was carried in news outlets around the Southeast for weeks; it helped convince the public and elected officials that something really needed to be done. When our government agencies and officials fail to do their jobs to safeguard us from the impacts of dirty air, contaminated water, and spoiled land, citizens often have no other place to turn than the press to shine a light on serious problems.

In early June this year, businesses, neighborhoods, hotels, and hospitals in Atlanta’s central core suffered nearly a week without water, when the city’s aging pipes burst. An eye-opening (and mind-boggling) investigative report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently revealed the ongoing risk to the entire drinking water system. For years, city employees had failed to maintain the thousands of shut-off valves buried underground; several failed, creating multiple cascading breaks. The reporter filed nearly a dozen open-records requests, seeking a clear accounting of how the city maintains and tests its shut-off values; officials could not provide one.

As the saying goes: “Sunlight in the best disinfectant.” In other words, people usually perform to a better standard when they know their behavior is being observed. It’s human nature. Accurate, truthful journalists are our guardians; they assemble and verify facts and then work to convey a fair account of their meaning. In this post-truth era of fake news and alternative facts, critical thinking and news literacy are more important than ever.

Thank you Atlanta Intown for three decades of journalistic integrity, important news, and wonderful stories about our community.

Sally Bethea is the retired executive director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and an environmental and sustainability advocate. Her award-winning Above the Waterline column appears monthly in Atlanta Intown. More by Sally Bethea