Editorial: What tragedy means to the community
November 25, 2014
From the Editor...
In the year and few months that I’ve been with the Advertiser, this week is the first time where I’ve felt truly compelled to write an editorial. I wish the circumstances were better, but I want to share with you, the Barry County citizens, what I experienced this week and over my year here at the paper.
Over the past year, I’ve formed many friendships with people across the county. I’ve gotten to know many of the professionals, parents, students and teachers that make Barry County the great place that it is. As part of my job, I’ve gotten to meet extraordinary people, and many of those have been the students, teachers and faculty at Southwest Schools. To learn of the loss of Jessica Morgan, a senior, from a car crash was one of the hardest things I’ve had to cover since I’ve been here, and I’d be lying if I said I’d been able to do with my composure kept.
Like Southwest, my school was very small. I, too, knew most of my graduating class the whole 13 years from kindergarten until graduation. Of the 24 students in my graduating class, 16 were “lifers” as I called them, or kids who I’d been with since that first day of elementary. Thinking back, I remember how, if tragedy struck one of us, it hit us all. It was like an earthquake, and it didn’t matter if you knew the person who had lost a parent or a friend, you felt it. You hugged them. You cried. You shared that burden.
So this week, as the school allowed me to go and speak to Jessica’s friends and hear their stories, and her family shared with me, one thing stood out to me above everything else: community. The support that the community has for Jessica’s family and friends is the beauty in the tragedy. The community, not only in the Southwest School District, but the entire surrounding area, feels that shock.
I’ve seen people buy someone else’s groceries when they’ve been a bit short at the store. I’ve seen doors held open at every single shop. I’ve watched teenagers go out of their way to walk a stranger in need of a steady arm across the street. And now, I’ve watched the community rally together, light candles, pray and sing to remember the life of a girl taken too soon. These aren’t isolated incidents, they are the makings of a community that cares, a community that shares the burden.
-Charlea Mills, Editor
From the Editor...
In the year and few months that I’ve been with the Advertiser, this week is the first time where I’ve felt truly compelled to write an editorial. I wish the circumstances were better, but I want to share with you, the Barry County citizens, what I experienced this week and over my year here at the paper.
Over the past year, I’ve formed many friendships with people across the county. I’ve gotten to know many of the professionals, parents, students and teachers that make Barry County the great place that it is. As part of my job, I’ve gotten to meet extraordinary people, and many of those have been the students, teachers and faculty at Southwest Schools. To learn of the loss of Jessica Morgan, a senior, from a car crash was one of the hardest things I’ve had to cover since I’ve been here, and I’d be lying if I said I’d been able to do with my composure kept.
Like Southwest, my school was very small. I, too, knew most of my graduating class the whole 13 years from kindergarten until graduation. Of the 24 students in my graduating class, 16 were “lifers” as I called them, or kids who I’d been with since that first day of elementary. Thinking back, I remember how, if tragedy struck one of us, it hit us all. It was like an earthquake, and it didn’t matter if you knew the person who had lost a parent or a friend, you felt it. You hugged them. You cried. You shared that burden.
So this week, as the school allowed me to go and speak to Jessica’s friends and hear their stories, and her family shared with me, one thing stood out to me above everything else: community. The support that the community has for Jessica’s family and friends is the beauty in the tragedy. The community, not only in the Southwest School District, but the entire surrounding area, feels that shock.
I’ve seen people buy someone else’s groceries when they’ve been a bit short at the store. I’ve seen doors held open at every single shop. I’ve watched teenagers go out of their way to walk a stranger in need of a steady arm across the street. And now, I’ve watched the community rally together, light candles, pray and sing to remember the life of a girl taken too soon. These aren’t isolated incidents, they are the makings of a community that cares, a community that shares the burden.
-Charlea Mills, Editor
