The Flip Side

News. It can be a tough business with a dark side. Daily, we report on shootings, stabbings, armed robberies and fires. It can be difficult, nearly impossible, to separate oneself from the negativity. That's especially true when the story hits home. A deputy district attorney recently took her own life. It was a tragic situation. Made even more so by the comments I received from viewers. Suddenly I became a part of the story, talking with family members and friends who wanted to remember her life.

Another story hit home as well. It was a riot at the High Desert State Prison in Susanville. As an outsider, one almost automatically blames the prisoners. It's a high-security prison filled with dangerous convicted felons. The emails that poured in following that riot, however, gave me a different perspective. Mothers told me about the abuse and mistreatment of their sons, wives told me about the difficulty in visiting their husbands because of lock-downs after a riot. Of course, the department of corrections has it's reasons and public safety is the number one concern. Still, the countless emails and phone calls point to the fact that there is another side to every story we cover here on KOLO 8.

Sometimes, though, the flip side is a good one. Believe it or not, in the midst of devastation, death and mayhem, there is goodwill. The latest fire in Lake Tahoe sent the fears and horrors of the Angora blaze rushing back into the memories of those who live there. As 5 homes were destroyed during this Sunnyside fire, and 20 acres burned, it wasn't the devastation, but the heroism that stuck out in my mind. One woman told our KOLO 8 reporter Joe Harrington, that by the time she realized the flames were coming dangerously close to her home, that neighbors had already started digging trenches and hosing down the perimeter. It's that side of the story that you don't always hear. It's that side of the story, that I hold onto every day.

It isn't easy going to sleep every night with the tragedy and darkness of a day's work on my mind, but that goodwill is what keeps me going. I know that the shootings, stabbings, robberies and fires will never stop. I know that evil will always be a part of the world we live in. But I also know that there is good, and as long as I'm in the news industry, that flip side is the motivation that will keep me going.