It’s no overstatement to say that without a free and responsible press, there would be no democracy.

Democracy is the word we throw around to describe all the self-government that looks out for all of us, equally, even when the people we choose to lead us miss the mark.

The Sentinel is changing this week, primarily because a group of people understand this newspaper’s critical role in preserving a healthy democracy in the community and the region.

The reason why The Sentinel journalists, and journalists around the world, make democracy work is because even the best of people, even under the best of circumstances, are only at their best when they know they’re being watched and judged.

That’s just how people are.

And journalism makes democracy work because the worst of people do the worst possible things while assuming they won’t be found out or held accountable.

The lack of transparency and accountability wielded by a free press is what makes it possible for dictators like Vladimir Putin to lie effortlessly to his citizens to kill Ukrainians and his own soldiers with impunity.

The power of a free press, and the critical need for it, isn’t just an issue of national and international proportions. The lives we all want to live depend on democracy working at the state Capitol, on school boards, city councils, district courts, county jails and at every other level of government and business.