Why journalism, why now?

I'm a writer. I've been a writer most of my life, though I didn't always think of myself as one. At one point, shortly after graduating high school, I'd thought of going into journalism. Even took a beginning reporting class at what was then St. Petersburg Junior College (now St. Petersburg College ). Unfortunately, I didn't finish the class; the day I was due to take the final, I was in the hospital giving birth to my oldest son. Never did make up the final; I had other things on my mind.

Life has a funny way of changing things. You figure your path is going to go one way and some bump in the road alters your life. (The old joke: How do you make God laugh? Tell Him your plans.) I had several children with my first husband. Somewhere along the road, I became a fire fighter/paramedic trainee. Women, unfortunately, are still greatly unrepresented here, as we are in many fields. True, there aren't as many men in, say, nursing as there are women, but in jobs that have been traditionally held by men, the pay tends to be better. I also tried going back to school, trying the pre-med path. Got a divorce, drove cab, got remarried.

It's funny, but my second husband pointed out that I was a writer, that I was, indeed, happiest when writing, whether poetry, novels, short stories, screenplays, the occasionally letter to the editor about something I felt was wrong (or right) with some segment of society. So when I went back to school, I decided to go for a journalism degree.

Journalism, though? Why not some other form of writing? After all, I still intend to write novels, screenplays and poetry about the hard truths. But journalism?

There are journalists who report the news. After all, a true democracy can not possibly hope to function if its citizens are kept in the dark. We need to know that certain things happen. The drunk driver who had his third accident while driving inebriated in four months? Oh, my. The high school teacher who has had affairs with several of her students? Tsk, tsk. The Washington insider who has used his or her influence to (fill in the blank)? Hmmm...

Then there are journalists who are a little different, either by where they work or by writing columns on what he or she percieves as right or wrong. As citizens, we need to decide if these journalists are telling the truth. If the columnist is too one sided ("All men/women/blacks/whites are bad/good/etc."), then we can call their views into question. But if they give us well thought out reasons for their beliefs of right and wrong, then we tend to listen and learn. ("Mrs. Jones was a great teacher because she motivated poor students into achieving their true potentials" or "Smith is wrong because he pays his farm-workers the equivalent of $2 an hour, then charges the same people $20 a night for cot to sleep on and $5 a meal.")


Two journalists whose truth-telling inspire me are Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and Bill Maxwell of the St. Petersburg Times. They both tell the hard truths. It is, in part, because of Goodman and Maxwell that I decided to major in journalism.

Can the system be changed by the average person--you and me? According to Harry Glenn, Representative C. W. "Bill" Young (Florida's District 10's U.S. Congressman), we can affect change. During a recent phone interview, Mr. Glenn stated that on more than one occasion, Young has championed a bill because of comments from his constituents. If it's important, Mr. Glenn told me, Rep. Young wants to know. And much of what we find outrageous (the drunk driver, the $2 farm worker) is because of what we've learned from journalists. If we know about these problems, then we can work to change them. Make phone calls, write letters, pressure Those In Charge to change the system.

That, my friends, is what a democracy is. And a good journalist, one who tells the truth, is a big part of that democracy.