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Show Page 9 SEPTEMBER21,2006 THE GARFIELD COUNTY INSIDER READ ALL ABOUT YOUR LIFE IN OUR RAGES By Wayne Trotter, Publisher of the Tecumseh Countywide News, Tecumseh, Oklahoma When you're born. When you marry, like it that way), newspapers afe still When you die. covering your life because they are covSbme wagging tongues will tell you ering your times. That's where the hard those are the only times most people get news comes in. their names in the newspaper. Hard news usually falls into two catIn the first and last instances, the egories. There's institutional news such tongues continue, you just won't care, as what happens in Congress or at the And when you get married, you have courthouse, and breaking news, like other things on your mind. when the airplane crashes or war breaks So what's the difference? out. When big hard news happens, The difference is huge. Like a everybody's going to be telling you about stopped clock, even wagging tongues arc it and it will be in your newspaper as right a couple of times every day. well. Whetherjoyftil or tragic, important JuneNewspapers may not be able to get tures of everyday living make the pa- it out first these days but they still can pers. You probably did get your name do it best, they still can fill in the details, published when you were born and when they still can answer your questions and you got married. You probably will again some of their people still write in a way when you pass away. that captures a moment or stirs your But today's newspapers do so much soul. Just because it came out first somemore than that. Newspapers cover your where else doesn't mean that newspalife-all your life, not just the beginning per story doesn't contain information and the end. Along the way, newspapers you need and want to know. More ofwill tell you things you need to know and ten than not, it does, and sometimes it's occasionally tickle your funnybone or the only place you can get the story even make you mad. straight. Hey, remember when your kid was But you know what? Even though the star of the big game? Remember the newspapers can do a great job on the way the football kind of floated through big stories, they really excel with "little" the air until he reached up and pulled it stories, everyday things in your town in? Remember the way he took off for that are probably going to affect your the end zone? How many papers did you life more than anything halfway across buy that weekend? That's right. .Some the world or who's in the White House, of them are still around and Grandpa still Go to a local meeting, say your town has the clipping on the wall above his zoning board or your city council or desk, doesn't he? . maybe some kind of hearing in one of Well, maybe it wasn't the big game, your courts. Is there a reporter there? It might have been the recital or the Where is he or she from? That's right, school play or V acation Bible SchoolNine times out often, maybe more ofgradiiation or a feature picture or a mil- ten, it's your local newspaper Yes, TV lion, zillion other things that sneak "be- gives you local news but their people neath the radar" in this go-go-go world usually have to work on a broad canof ours. Not all of them are in the paper vas. They're covering lots of communibut some are. ties in half-an-hour while there's probNewspapers do cover the hard news ably one or more newspapers working but they also publish lots of features and hard just to cover yours. If your neighpictures and little articles someone bor makes an application to put in a brought in. trailer next to your backyard fence, Most of the time, the stories will be they're not going to break into CSI to written and the pictures taken by one of tell you about it. You're going to read your neighbors who goes through the about it in your local newspaper, same things you do every day, who Some newspaper somewhere probknows about the long lines at the gro- ably did carry a few words when you eery store and the prices at the gas sta- were born. There may have been two tion and who wonders Why something or three pictures and stories about your isn't done about the same things you engagement and wedding. Newspapers wonder about. If it's a local problem, did-those things then and they do them something like that big pothole down the now. • .'. . street, the reporter .probably will ask But newspapers don't stop there. somebody at Cify Hall and the newspa- This is National Newspaper Week and per again will be covering part of your the theme for the week tells' the whole life. With any .luck, you and your news- story: "Newspapers - We Cover Your paper will get that hole filled in. . Life." Eveh if you don't see your own name It's a good slogan because it's true, in the papers too often (and lots of people Newspapers do cover our lives. NEWSPAPERS We cover, your life. TODAY nwie cAPsuue TOMORROW \ WOW' THE HOME TOWN SHEET It isn't a very big paper, as newspapers go these days, But its little town it has put on the map in a hundred different ways. It has no-leased wire in its offices, nor four decked presses to runIts paper comes just in a bundle, and not by the carload, or ton, But it has claims to distinction, and which it will always make good; Its limit is only the limit of how people do as they should. It boosted for incorporation, for grading and sidewalks and treesSchools-teachers-and helped train the boys that America sent overseas. It argued for health and for sewers, and places for kiddies to playFor parks and clean living and thinking, and brightened the invalid's way. It befriended the churches and lodges, the band and the choral club, too, And helped with the flour mill and coal mines and all that good citizens do To push a good town to the front row where people will see it and smileFor a live town induces good nature-good nature eliminates bile. It mentioned all the babies and spread their fame far and wide. Inspired them through life and then said a good word for them when they died. The crops of the neighborhood, always came in for a compliment, too,. And the front office had an exhibit of wheat, oats and barley on view. A mention was made of the flowers, the orchards and lawns and the grass, And once in a while an acknowledgement of a "passel of garden sass;" The world was told of the chickens and turkeys that strutted about, And even about the red heifer that broke the fence down and got out, New buildings and all such improvements were specially played up strong, New paint on a fence and new porches were always good for a song. The paper is still doing duty as neighbor, guide, mentor and friend, But the .pathway is crooked and thorny and many have come to the end Unnourished and starved and neglected as though they had never been Boosting and struggling and boosting; determined, with fair help, to win; But in fact, the paper's one of us, and one that we like to greet; So hats off! three cheers! and appeciation! to the old home town sheet! The Publishers'Auxiliary, 1920 By Charles Frederick Wadsworth. NATIONAL NEWSPAPER WEEK This year, National Newspaper Week is being celebrated from October I through 7. Since 1940, the Newspaper Association Managers have sponsored and supported National Newspaper Week, a week-long celebration showcasing the impact of newspapers on the everyday lives of citizens. Community newspaper readers are looking for news that's important to them - births, deaths, school and sporting events, local government and classifieds - and that's what they find in the pages of their.Iocal newspaper. Local newspapers are committed to the community and to the people who live in them. |