No Place Is Safe From Violence In Today’s World

When the employees of The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland arrived at work on June 28 there were likely several things on their minds.

Some may have been thinking about the upcoming weekend. Some may have been thinking of what they were going to do that night when they got home to their families. Some may have been thinking about their families. Others may have been even looking ahead to July 4.

Without doubt, each one was thinking about the next edition. However, none of the employees of the newspaper gave any thought to being the center of attention in the next edition. That’s not how it is supposed to work. Journalists report the news. Most have no clamoring to be the news.

However, when a gunman (whom I will not name here) entered the building and eventually killed five employees of the paper, those who died and those who survived were suddenly known around the country if not the world.

My long association with the newspaper business drove this story close to home and heart. None of us think about going to work (whatever line of work that might be) thinking we will never go home again. We don’t think about never seeing our family members again.

We go to work, perform our tasks and then enjoy our time at home. The next day we do it all over again.

Through my time in journalism I have encountered plenty of mad people. It’s the nature of the business. Some stories, by their nature, are going to make people mad. It’s part of the territory.

One of the maddest people I encountered came not long after we started the Barrow News-Journal. We received a tip that a member of the local school board was delinquent on paying his taxes. (This person is no longer on the school board.)

After discussing the issue with co-publisher Mike Buffington, he told me to call the BOE member and ask for his comments on it. Initially the BOE member tried to rationalize not paying his taxes. However, the more he spoke the more I could hear the anger rising in his voice.

Later that day the BOE member called me back and said the taxes had been paid and there was no need to write a story. By chance, Mike was standing in my office when the call came in. I relayed the information to him but he said the story would still run although it would say the BOE member had gone and paid the back taxes only after being contacted by the paper.

“If he had the funds to pay them in the same day then there was no reason for the taxes not to have already been paid,” Mike told me.

I agreed completely.

The BOE member could hear Mike’s comments and I could picture the steam escaping from his ears. He eventually hung up on me after a good bit of very loud screaming and saying he gave of his time to the community and how we should be ashamed for writing such garbage.

Yet after the story ran there was no further contact from the BOE member. When I attended the next school board meeting nothing was said although I admit to wondering if perhaps I would be challenged to a fight.

The point of this is to show that while many people may get mad at a newspaper it typically doesn’t lead to violence. Unfortunately that was not the case in Maryland last week.

Newspapers have always played an important part in our country. I have always been in the community paper business, publications like the one you are now reading.

These papers report what is going on in your community. Stories such as local high school sports, who was born, who died, who got married, what happened at the local school board meeting or county commissioners or city council are reported weekly.

While community newspapers certainly point out the good, they also have a duty to report the news when it is not so pretty. That often times steps on toes and employees hear about it. Such was the case with the former school board member.

Certainly the alleged shooter in this case has been and is dealing with mental issues. Reports indicate he had tried to make himself the victim through actions of the newspaper.

It seems now the people suffering from mental problems often fall through the cracks and don’t get the help they need, assuming the help is needed.

Situations like this should not be about guns and the need to create more laws. No law would have prevented this situation. However, better assistance for mental illness may have been able to prevent the tragedy. Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

My heart hurts for those newspaper employees who died on the job. They weren’t covering a war but a personal war was brought to them.

I have no doubt each person at the Maryland-based paper took their duties under the First Amendment very seriously. Unwanted actions made five of them heroes in a way they never wanted or could have ever imagined.

It should give all of us pause to appreciate what we have and the most precious asset of all: life. We would all like to think we are safe at work and safe in our homes. In reality, we all know that is not the case. Anything can happen at any time. It’s the way of the world in 2018.

Still, it was heartbreaking to watch it all unfold last week to my journalism colleagues in Maryland. My thoughts remain with them and their families.

Monticello native Chris Bridges is a long-time newspaper columnist. He welcomes comments from readers of The Monticello News at

pchrisbridges@gmail.com.