Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 25, 1995 TAG: 9507250046
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's something I've heard since I started with this paper almost two years ago.
Every story out there, I've always been told, has a human angle that's much more captivating than dry numbers on cattle futures or budget discussions, for example.
But for someone like myself - who comes from a long and proud line of quiet, introverted Midwesterners - getting close to complete strangers is about as foreign as eating sushi.
Working for the past 18 months in Roanoke as a night police reporter was the toughest, and probably the best, training I could have experienced. It forced me to approach people at sometimes the worst moment in their lives. It taught me to begin with compassion, and listen, listen, listen.
Sometimes, I failed miserably.
There was the time this spring when a man called the Roanoke office to tell us he watched a horrible beating outside his front door. I had read the police blotter describing the event in cold terms: Who beat whom, when the suspect was arrested and to which hospital the battered man was transported.
Normally, I told the man, assault and battery doesn't merit in-depth coverage, unless it ends in death. That's why we simply wrote a brief from the police report.
But to this man, who awoke to the sound of screams and the sight of blood, the experience changed the way he thought about his neighborhood, about his safety.
His experience, had I written about it, would have meant a great deal more to readers than abstract estimates on the increase in Roanoke's homicide rate from last year.
Most readers would skim past the small number of children who survive acute myelogenous leukemia, too. But the story of Nathan Brown, a 4-year-old Roanoke boy who is dying from the disease, seemed to hit home with many people.
Over the past year, I've had the pleasure of knowing Nathan and his family. Their struggle - months of chemotherapy, weeks of agonizing bone marrow transplant procedures, days of precious, bittersweet life - will always be their story. I had the honor of relating it to our readers.
This summer, as I've reacquainted myself with the valley I knew as a student at Radford, I've been talking with people about what concerns them - especially when it comes to education.
I've heard praise and complaints; open-mindedness and fear. But it all goes back to the teen-ager struggling to raise a child and graduate from high school; the teacher fighting to keep math simple and accessible; the parent worried that drugs and violence may be seeping into once safe, rural schools.
It all goes back to people and their stories. I look forward to hearing more.
Lisa Applegate covers education for the New River Valley bureau. To reach her, call 381-1679.|
by CNB