‘A flood of tears’: Why it’s important to help us continue to tell community’s stories
I’m usually in deep trouble when an email from a reader includes a list of pointers.
But an email last week was not trouble. It was beautiful.
I’m going to share part of it with you because it’s reassuring to know that some people do “get it” about the newspaper’s role in a community.
I share this because that role is threatened, and I’ll tell you how you can help.
But first, that list in the email.
“Third, your article about the 6th green brought a flood of tears. Just by itself, it was a lovely description. Their neighbors are fortunate to hear that in the evenings. ‘A Mighty Fortress’ was the recessional at my mother’s funeral, so that was touching to me.”
That was about a column on Billy Howe and fiancee Stacey Beane finding a sweet way to ease the stress of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Most evenings just about sunset, they stand on a golf green outside their Hilton Head Island home and play music for five or six minutes.
He plays trumpet, and she plays the violin. He’s normally playing for swinging dances with The Headliners band that helped write the story of modern Hilton Head. She teaches violin, and plays with The Lexington (Kentucky) Philharmonic.
They’ve been sharing “Good night from the Sixth Green” on Facebook.
“It’s just a way of sending out some positive vibes,” Howe said.
Their story will not topple a government. But it strengthens our amazing community.
That’s what we do at the paper. We connect people, and connect the dots, sometimes in the most unusual ways, as the reader’s email showed.
It gives us a “there,” a heart, a soul, a reason.
Then the email said:
“4. And finally, I have been meaning to write to you after the letter to the editor from the person who was grateful for having his newspaper with his morning coffee. AMEN!!
“I am amazed at how a newspaper can be created every day. All of the research, writing, editing, layout, printing, distribution and delivery … every day. It is a miracle.
“I greatly admire you and all of your staff.”
Yes, I told the reader, it is a miracle.
Freedom of the press is a miracle, and the backbone, of the American experiment.
I thanked the reader for appreciating the details in what we do, with low pay and lifetimes away from family: the care for accuracy, tone, community responsibility, ethics, legal rights and restrictions, fairness, inclusiveness, spelling, style, grammar.
That doesn’t count the mechanics, from search engines to printing presses.
And it doesn’t count all the wading we have to do through lies and spin, and the fights to keep public documents and public meetings from being secret.
“We fail at this every day,” I told the reader, “but we also succeed at this every day.”
And, I said, “Thanks for noticing the ‘every day’ part of it. Right now, a staff of 14 (that once was 60) is posting new news all day, 365 days a year. All weekends. All holidays. All hurricanes. All pandemics.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH for noticing.”
The staff size shows that we’re struggling to survive.
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Thank you for noticing.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
