For the last 36 years of my life, I have walked into the office of a newspaper.
Not once in those more than three decades have the front doors been locked.
I'm starting to wonder about that policy.
Yesterday a men with a vendetta against the newspaper walked shot his way into the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., and started shooting people.
Five people were killed.
It turns out the suspect had filed a defamation suit against the newspaper in connection with a criminal case he was involved in a few years back.
One of the things that I know about this job is that every day I am going to make lots of people angry. It goes with the territory. We report on things that people would just as soon not have splashed all over the front page of the newspaper.
I can tell you that there is always another side to the story. There is always someone who believes we have gotten the story wrong, or failed to offer their side of things.
Most of the time those people settle for calling the newspaper. They often are passed along to me. When they are done screaming at me, I try to determine if their complaints have merit.
Every once in awhile a person will actually decide to pay us a visit in person.
I often meet with these people and give them an opportunity to air their grievance.
I've been threatened lots of times, but not once has anyone ever gotten physical with me, let alone something worse.
Lots of people have vendettas against newspapers these days.
I don't think I really need to say more than that.
The newspaper has been sued any number of times in my time here, including during the nearly 20 years I have sat in the editor's chair. It's not a lot of fun. Dealing with lawyers rarely is.
But until yesterday, I never really thought all that much about what could happen.
My heart sank when I heard the news yesterday. No one goes into this business to get rich. The pay is lousy, the hours are ridiculous (you want to work nights, weekends and holidays? Work for a newspaper). We consider ourselves as watchdogs, keeping tabs on those in power.
We are your neighbors, we have families, we share the same hopes and dreams as most other people.
I can assure we are not the enemy of the people.
This morning my heart is in Annapolis. I salute the staff of the Capital Gazette. I was not surprised in the least to see them hard at work last night preparing today's newspaper.
I'm sure they never expected to be today's lead story.
That's one of the things about working for a newspaper. Every day is different.
When I speak to groups, I am always asked what's the best part of being a newspaper. Very often I am in a classroom. I always offer the same answer. I walk over to the chalkboard, pick up an eraser and tell the group that every day I get to erase everything that is on this blackboard and create a new entity from scratch. Of course, these were in the days when our main focus was still print, as opposed to the online world we now dwell in.
Every once in awhile some enterprising kid (maybe a future reporter) will ask the appropriate follow-up question: What's the worst thing about being a newspaper editor. The answer is simple. Every day I get to create one of these from scratch. There are no off days, no slow news days, no holidays.
Even when your heart is breaking.
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