Yes, there are faces behind many of those stories
Sometimes in this business you forget that there are real people behind the stories that you present each day. I don’t get out of the office as much as I used to - or as much as I would like. We take this 24-hour news things pretty seriously. There is not a lot of down time.
You wind up consumed with pithy, 140-character blips on Twitter, and you check Facebook constantly.
Technology is nice; people are better.
I actually enjoy meeting and talking to the public. They always have interesting things to say about the newspaper. And I am always impressed by how much they value what we do. They seem to care about how we are doing under this onslaught of technology that we swim in every day. Like me, they remember things weren’t always this way.
The truth is we value them – and what they do – as well. We’d better. We need every one of them.
That is the message I took with me when I walked into the Ballroom at Boothwyn one night last week. I had been invited to speak to the Aston Lions on a very special night. When I fielded the call from Bob Hoyt, I wondered if I was going to be able to squeeze it into my schedule. I’m glad I did. It’s at once a very comforting – and also disconcerting – thought when you walk into a room of people who look just like you. In other words, most people in the room were well north of 50. Yes, these were loyal, longtime Daily Times readers.
Everyone in the room greeted me warmly, told me how much they enjoyed the paper and what we do here every day. More than one could not resist telling me what I have heard more times since I became editor of this newspaper than any other single quote. In fact, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard it, I would no longer be here. I would be long retired. What do they all tell me? “I’ve been reading your paper since it was the Chester Times.”
Yes, we have a long history in this county.
So do the Aston Lions. They were celebrating their 70th Charter Night. They’ve been at this racket even longer than I’ve been at the Daily Times.
I often write about the notion that community service is quickly becoming a lost art.
Don’t believe it? You should have been with me last week.
Most of the members present have been doing this work for decades. They are all prominent members of their communities. People like Norm Shropshire, the longtime prominent funeral director in the county.
As it turns out, I sat next to Norm during dinner.
I asked him the question I often ask prominent people when I meet them out in public. “How are we treating you?” Of course, this means a couple of things to Norm.
First, there are the obits. I assured him of something I always tell people. The obits are still the most important information we publish every day.
In fact, I could not resist a little test I always do at public speaking events. I usually speak to two kinds of groups – kids in high school and college, and service organizations such as my visit to the Lions.
When I ask this question to the kids, they hem and haw and blurt out one answer after another, but they never offer the correct answer.
And yet when I ask the very same question of the older groups, every hand in the room shoots up.
And of course the Lions did not disappoint me.
So what is the question? When our average reader picks up the Daily Times, what’s the first thing they turn to? No, not the lotteries, or the comics, or the horoscopes. Not even the boxscores for our legions of sports fans.
It’s the obituaries. Norm could not hide his smile when all the people in the room blurted out the answer.
But Norm wears another hat as well. He’s a longtime member of Middletown Council. Yes, the very same township that has been engulfed in the controversy over Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline project.
Norm is running for re-election again next week. I would not blame him if he was not. In other words, it’s been a rough 18 months. That’s how long the council has been getting raked over the coals by several members of the community who are adamantly opposed to the pipeline.
Oddly enough, Norm wanted to know how I was doing, and offered that he would hate to have my job, trying to satisfy all the differing sides on so many very controversial stories.
Like I said, you sometimes lose sight of the people behind the stories.
Hoyt told me the majority of their Lions in the Aston chapter are in their 60s and 70s. Some are even in their 80s and 90s. One august member has been volunteering for six decades.
That is one of the things that struck me about the group. They are all older.
I could not help but think that these are our longtime, loyal print readers. They’re not nearly as interested in the online world. They, like me, still relish the idea of holding that newsprint in their hands. Even if the ink comes off on your sleeves.
People aren’t reading newspapers – at least not in print – the way they used to.
Guess what? People aren’t volunteering either.
I could see that with once glance in that room last week.
I see it every time we write a story about the dwindling numbers of volunteer who make up our local fire companies. Most members are older, have been doing it for years, and do not see that many young people stepping up to take their place. Oh, by the way, Norm also is a longtime volunteer firefighter.
Our volunteers are disappearing in front of our eyes.
I salute the Aston Lions on their 70th Charter Night. It was a great affair - and it allowed me to get out of the office.
Now if only I could convince more people to carve out some time to volunteer.
And if they wanted to read the newspaper while they’re at, that would be a plus.