Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our January/February 2025 Issue

Texas Observer readers,

Last month, we at the Observer officially celebrated our 70^th year of continuous publication. Some 200 supporters gathered at Scholz Garten, the historic downtown Austin watering hole that nurtured the liberal social scene around the Observer for decades. In a bleak time for Texas and the country, I know that I felt heartened. 

As an ominous presidential inauguration nears—and as you open this new issue into which we’ve once again poured our journalistic labors—here’s a bit of what I said to the Observer community that night:

Looking around now, I almost can’t believe that, only a year and a half ago, the Texas Observer nearly shut down just shy of the 70th anniversary we celebrate tonight. I think most of you here already know this story, but basically—not for the first time in history—the Observer had run out of money. And our nonprofit board at that time didn’t see a way out. What nobody knew, until we the workers of the Texas Observer put it to the test, was just how broad and deep our community truly was. “Where in the world are you going to find $200,000?” I recall someone reasonably asking. Well, we found more than that, and we found it among ordinary readers and like-minded people across Texas, the nation, and beyond—and we found it in a matter of days.

The thing is, there’s only one reason the Observer survived that crisis. It’s certainly not the general great health of the journalism industry or the nonprofit sector. No, it’s the fact that the Observer—going back to 1954—has always been more than a newspaper, a magazine, or a website. The Observer has always been a community of those who persist in the seemingly crazy belief that Texas can one day be a more just and equitable place. It has always been a community bound together not just by Texan-ness, but by hope, by empathy, by tears and sweat alike. And that’s what you see here tonight.

I don’t need to tell this crowd that our country faces dark days ahead—and, no, not even having lived under the Texas GOP is preparation. I used to be the Observer’s immigration reporter, and before that I worked directly with asylum-seekers, so I know that I feel what’s coming like a little void in the chest. But I also know I feel a bit better, seeing y’all here, knowing that the Observer will be part of a community facing what comes together.

Solidarity,

Note: Stories from the January/February issue will appear online here. To receive our print magazine, become a member here.

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