It began when a handful old newspaper colleagues reconnected after years spent pursuing careers across the country.

Being storytellers at heart, we talked a lot about the death of local news, and the impact of its absence on the existential threat facing our nation.

We realized, too, that talking isn’t enough. We decided to dust off our old tools and take advantage of the electronic town square that is the internet and start our own “local paper.”

Just as our town square stretches from coast to coast, our “local paper” will tell stories about all Americans. We cannot promise that the news will all be “good.” We do pledge to tell stories that reinforce our shared destiny. We intend to persuade all who will listen that a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal is too powerful to be undone by those given power and wealth they are too weak to keep under control.

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You wouldn’t know it from listening to its detractors today, but  a free press was vital to our nation’s creation.

Ben Franklin started a newspaper to let merchants know when ships were coming and going. Patriots and British Loyalists used the press to argue their causes. People divided by geography, culture, religion and education found common ground in newspapers. Through them, the citizens of the emerging nation found common purpose as as they shared their aspirations and their grievances.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, who signed the Declaration of Independence and was one of Pennsylvania’s delegates to the Continental Congress, felt so strongly about the role of the press that he said a single paper was “equal to at least two regiments” in its impact on the Revolutionary War.

But the local papers that promoted such public discourse are largely relics of a forgotten time.

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Changes in culture and habits, combined with corporate ownership, have reduced local news in much of the country. In some places it has vanished, replaced by canned content produced far away and piped in to provide a delivery vehicle for advertising, or worse, propaganda intended to mislead and confuse.

Worse, too many modern owners have abandoned the purpose the Founders believed in so strongly that they wrote into the Constitution language to protect it.

These owners have abrogated the role of watchdogs, thought leaders and chroniclers. They hide behind the First Amendment to manufacture a profit-driven consumer product that substitutes clickbait for ideas. Too many Americans have lost  all respect for the free press Thomas Jefferson considered so fundamental to our democracy.

We believe the town square is a metaphor for the common places that citizens once gathered to share information and opinions. It’s where they assembled to debate and to vote — for or against — the rules they chose to live by.

Modern technology, though, has drastically changed the ways we receive information. We are exposed to more information in more forms with each advance, but our connection with others seems to grow weaker with each new “miracle.”

We live in siloes. We read from sources we prefer. We listen to voices that confirm our biases. We over a common definition of a fact. We turn away from those principles of the Enlightenment that inspired the nation's founders to invent a whole new form of government based on the dignity of individuals.

The result is a shortage of critical thinking, a mistrust of science, and the abandonment of rational discourse. Artificial Intelligence can create lies so persuasive that truth becomes an illusion. Sadly, there is no shortage of bad actors willing to exploit these “advances” to drive us apart.

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How do we stay united in the face of this?

We’re as confused as you.

We know our message will not resonate with everyone. Sadly, some are deeply invested in beliefs that are the antithesis of our nation's principles. Some have only the power of their vote. Others have the power of social media followings. And others hold elected office, where they work to bring back to life the very conditions that inspired the simple message that formed the foundation of our nation.

In 52 words, our Founders outlined their purpose in Uniting us. Nothing expresses their intent as clearly as the Preamble.

Now, when dark forces seek a return to rule by kings and religious leaders,  we must refresh our awareness of those words. We believe the Preamble to the United States Constitution offers solidarity, guidance, and support at this, the bleakest time in our nation's history. 

That's not hyperbole.

Until recently, we would have agreed with those who said the Civil War was our nation's lowest point. No longer.

The forces aligned against our United States today have resources and numbers and a vision the Confederacy's leaders could not have imagined.

Our only recourse, we believe, is to help unite as many Americans as possible. Thus, our United Fates.

Together we must realign attitudes and policies to reflect the Founders's original vision.

Together we must adopt it as the flag we will carry into a battle for hearts and minds we have no choice but to fight.