I’m not big on writing about the same topic week after week. But as I boarded the MHS speech bus Saturday evening following a quick stop for food, I opened the news feed on my phone to pass the time as I enjoyed my Jersey Mike’s sub on the long ride home.
Originally, this week I wanted to talk about lighter things. I wanted to write about boarding the speech bus at 4:50 a.m., about spending the day judging these amazing kids that are going places in their future, about Natalie competing on the varsity team this year and breaking finals at a huge tournament. I wanted to focus on those happy moments.
But as I scrolled through story after story of the day’s events in Minneapolis, I realized a single tear was running down my face. Once again — or continuing, depending on how you looked at it — our state was hurting.
My first thought was Brady since he was in the Cties. He had spent the day at Twins Fest with Ben and his dad. I shot a quick text to check in on him. I received two words back.
“Everything sucks.” That’s it. That’s how my 19-year-old college student who should be living his best years was describing life right now. In that moment, my heart broke. I texted him some more, meeting him where he was with all that was happening in his world. The campus and community he left in mid-December for break is not the same campus and community he is at now. And it left me wondering, where am I at with it?
This is where I am. I’m a mom. First and foremost, my kids are my world. Right now, there is so much happening in our world from all “sides” that I can’t put into words. I put sides in quotations because I don’t feel it’s a political issue any longer. I feel it’s a hate issue.
But if I’m having trouble wrapping my head around all that is happening, how am I supposed to help my kids understand their world? Maybe if they were younger, I could shield them from it. But I have teenagers. I have involved teenagers who pay attention to the world around them. The events happening in our state are things younger kids are going to be learning about in their history classes some day. But my kids are living them right now — one of those way closer than mom would like.
I’m torn. I want to shield my kids from all the bad in the world. But I also want them to be informed, to understand the truth, to be aware of the world they are living in, to make their own decisions and to have empathy.
Second, I’m a small business owner. Last Friday, there was a call for businesses to close. If I was in Minneapolis, that may have been what we did. But I also think of the situation those business owners are being put in. If they choose to close because they feel they want to take that stand, they are supporting their community. They are putting others first and standing up for what they believe in.
They are also losing revenue, something very difficult for a small business. Many times, a single day is the make or break point of your week. They have employees they have to either choose to pay without revenue coming in or those employees go unpaid for a day, a day they may need.
It’s a battle. Finally, I’m a publisher. Yes, we don’t have all that is happening in the Cities directly on our doorstep. But we still have plenty of hate in our own small communities. We have page four as our opinion page for a reason. It is separate from the rest of the paper because it is views and opinions. They are not news stories. But every week we write based on our lives, what we see and what we question.
This can make people mad, especially in a small town. We’re raised that we should all have the same ideas, the same thoughts. Rocking the boat can have consequences. But our job as a newspaper is to bring those views to the forefront. To allow open and respectful discussion. To engage community members to build better communities.
We also have to watch as others in our industry are on the “front lines” of many tough stories. Members of the press can be seen as the enemy of both sides of an argument.
While Per and I attend the Minnesota Newspaper Association convention, Per will be leading a session entitled, “Covering the Hard Topics.” It’s not about doing the work. It’s about covering topics in a small town when you are reporting on or bringing up opposing opinions with the people you see in the grocery store, sit next to at church or whose kids attend the same school as yours. We’re not CNN or Fox News. We live, work and engage in our community that we report on. That can be tough and events like the last few weeks in our state, when tensions are running so high, make it even tougher.
I don’t have all the answers. I wish I did so I could work harder at making our state a better place. Instead, I’ll keep being a mom. A mom that talks and supports my kids. Who empathizes with where they are in this crazy world.
I’ll continue to be a small business owner working to better every community we’re a part of.
I’ll continue to help run four local newspapers. I’ll strive to report the news, welcome hope and respectful dialogue and give residents a place to voice respectfully, their concerns.
And yes, I’ll agree with Brady that sometimes “Everything sucks.” But if we stopped there, it would never change. Everything may have sucked on Saturday, but I’m still going to keep moving forward, because everything doesn’t suck every day and things will get better, especially if we work together to make that happen.
