Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 133, Number 28, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 10 July 2014 — Page 3

To report or not to report? On staying true to journalistic ethics

I here are some people who think that the newspaper should be a public relations document for the city or town. Nothing negative should be on the front page because it may

reflect poorly on the image that people want to convey. Many people apply that argument to stories on meth convictions, reports on controversies and other stories other than those which talk about how great it is to live in that community. Like every newspaper in the nation,the newspapers in the Pilot News group covered the issuing of marriage licenses to same sex couples in our community. We didn't create the story - the state and the federal courts didand we simply reported the facts. These facts included how many licenses were issued, how many were certified and who these couples were. If there had been no licenses issued and no marriages certified, we would have reported that too. This was our job. It is our job to report on the news of the day. We don't make it up and we don't treat it any other way we would treat any other reports or stories. Still it didn't stop the phones from ringing. I was told that this negative news doesn't belong on the front page of the newspaper in a community whose ideals are faith, family and business. This was a negative story that "supported or promoted the homosexual lifestyle." Wrong! It was a news story. Nothing more, nothing less. There have been times-in history when other stories made the front page, such as babies being found in bams or outhouses, abandoned by their mother. There have been stories of murder and corruption in local government. Did these not reflect negatively on the local communities? If all we are to print is good news, how can anyone be sure that their elected officials are following the law? How can a community be sure that law enforcement officers really are taking a "bite out of crime"? Putting your head in the sand and pretending that the modem world is not knocking on the door of your community is asking for a return to the days when people were lynched for the color of their skin or were tortured for their religious beliefs. Just because we write a story about a significant event in the state - whether you agree or disagree with the issue -

Gentle People Rhymes and Reasons .; By Henri L Richards Sr. There is a very special people I feel proud to know, With a way of life that has not changed in a hundred years or so. Plowing their fields with horses, taking buggies to the store, living very simple life for the Lord, and not asking for more. They always help each other, when there is a need, We all could take a lesson, from these Gentle people, indeed God will bless the Amish people I know, With health, happiness and fields that grow. Thank you so much Lord, once again, For letting me call these gentle people, my friends.

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does not make us the bad guys. We are not taking sides, only reporting the facts. As journalists who follow ethics, we cannot ignore a news story simply because it offends people. People are entitled to their opinions on the marriage equality movement, and they are also entitled to criticize our decision. Not buying an issue or choosing to not subscribe is your right, but what good does it do? Does it make the issue go away? Does it change the fact that a same sex couple did follow the law and are now regarded as legally married in the state of Indiana? No, that is still the case, pending the outcome of the state's appeal at the very least. But I would ask people think about this. When Civil Rights became law, journalists were targeted for the stories they wrote. The antislavery movement gained momentum from journalists, which I am sure did not sit well with the values of some areas of the nation, but who can argue what greater good came out of those journalists' efforts? In other nations across the globe, newspapers only print what the government wants them to print. Failing to do this results in death. Is this the kind of newspaper our local communities shoulcthave? I think not. Just as we are there to repprLoryagmes, social ills and problemsmUhe community, your locati newspaper is there to tell you about the achievement of our students, growth in the business community and record births and deaths. All of the Pilot Newsgroup papers which serve your communities are committed to covering the news in the community, not just the feel-good, rose-col-ored glasses variety. The truth is, there is good and bad about every place. Most of the time the good things decidedly outweigh the bad; that's the benefit of living tin small towns. What is important that the community be informed about break outs and breakthroughs, convictions and connections, grants and graft. And if what we write raises a little ire, perhaps it will serve as a catalyst to change. And we will be right there reporting on that change.

Community

NAPPANEE LIBRARY CONTINUES SUMMER READING CHALLENGE AND ACTIVITIES NAPPANEE - The Nappanee Public Library continues its 1.5 million-page "Fizz, Boom, Read" challenge in July. Participants who help reach the reading goal by July 31 will have the chance to win achieve-ment-level awards and some very exciting grand prizes as well! One Kindle Fire HD e-Reader Grand Prize will be drawn in the following age groups: Children age five to ten, teens age eleven to seventeen and adults age eighteen and up. Babies through age four will have the chance to win a Leapfrog 2 Ultra game system. Free Summer-use cards are available for any child age 18 and under living within the WaNee school district with participation in the Summer Reading Challenge. Weeldy activities for children are also planned. Kids age six to eleven can pop in any time between 10 a.m. 4 p.m. to complete a Simple science experiment on Mad Scientist Mondays. Science and technology will come alive with special guests on Totally Awesome Tuesdays from 3 age group. Learn about wild weather, have fun with frozen science and Children age birth through five, will meet for sciencethemed fun on Wednesdays. Parents and caregivers can choose either the 9:30 a.m. session, or the 11:30 a.m. noon session of "Boom Into More." No programming will be held on the week of July fourth. In addition to these activi-

Author signing, in Nappanee

NAPPANEE Visit D. Rudd Wise for a special book signing event at Main Street Coffee House, 105 N. Main St., Nappanee from 8 a.m. to noon July 12. "The Shallow's Deep Secrets" carries the reader along with Jess E. Hanes and his wife, Marie Ann, as they explore history on and in the rivers and lakes of the Great American Loop cruise around Eastern United States. They make their home ort a 42-foot Nordic Tug trawler during a 6,500mile 14-month adventure. He is a retired military and she recently sold her accounting firm. They spend winters on their ranch in the Texas hill country between San Antonio Austin. Then they go to Shuffleville, Ind. during the spring and summer months. This year, they are taking a cruise in their cruiser/ trawler/yacht on the Great

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Liam Goeglein with mom, Whitney, exploring light box color mixing during the "Boom Into More" weekly story-time at the library. (Photo provided)

ties, the library is planning several open Lego build times, movie matinees and recycled craft sessions throughout the summer. No

American Loop Cruise, treasure hunting along the way. They will be searching for historically lost or intentionally buried precious metals: gold, silver, copper, and also iron relic's ferrous and nonferrous metals. The cruise starts in Benton Harbor, Michigan, across Lake Michigan to Chicago, down to the Mississippi River to Florida, and then up the east coast to the Hudson Bay, over to the Erie Canal and then across the Great Lakes, and ends back in Benton Harbor, Mich. It will be a 12- to 13-month cruise. Each chapter of The Shallow's Deep Secrets takes the reader on a leisurely segment of mystery and adventure for shallow water treasure hunting. Also visit him from 11 a.m. 8 p.m. July 18 through July 26 at the 4-H Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds, 17746 CR 34, Goshen.

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Advance News * Thursday, July 10, 2014

registration is required for any of the activities throughout the summer. For more information on the reading challenge and all summer

Celebrate Christ’s love everyday A few weeks 5 i This week's Pastor with the radio on as it usually is. SfUKNEK I was listening BY PASTOR JIM DAVIDSON with only half an NAPPANEE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH ear when something the on-air personality said caught my attention. She said that it was only six months until Christmas. My initial thought was, "What?" But when I looked at the calendar, sure enough it was June 25 and we have only six months until Christmas. Now, I know that some of you will shudder at the thought. That was my initial reaction, knowing that Christmas and the Christmas season will soon be here. Others of you will let out a celebratory whoop, knowing that Christmas and the Christmas season will soon be here. Still others of you will react with indifference and resignation, knowing that Christmas and the Christmas season will soon be here. I don't want this column to be a rant about Christmas and about how Christmas is becoming increasingly cominercial and expanding its holiday season well beyond what has traditionally been celebrated. (Believe me, I completely understand this. I actually lived in the town of Santa Claus!) Of cburse, the true meaning of Christmas is about the coming of Jesus into our world so that we can know the love of God completely and eternally. It is about celebrating the birth of this little baby who embodies such hope for our troubled world. It is about how God cares for us in the midst of our ordinary lives each and every day. This brings me back to that announcement by that onair personality on the radio who was proclaiming that it is only six months until Christmas. But is that really the case? Should Christmas be confined to a single celebration on day or in one season of the year? I say a resounding no! If Christmas really is about how God loves and cares for us and sent Jesus so that we can know that love and care, it should be an every day event. It should be something we celebrate each and every day of the year. Of course, God's love in Jesus is something that we celebrate on Christmas Day. But we also celebrate it in early February. We celebrate it during July. We celebrate during October. We celebrate each and every day because God loves us each and every day and shows us that love in Jesus each and every day. Now it is a little less than six months until Christmas. I look forward to the celebrations which we will have in our Church as well as in our home and with our family. But I am also celebrating Christmas today, and will tomorrow and will strive to celebrate God's love and care in Jesus Christ each and every day. I hope you will too.

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activities, go to www.nappaneelibrary.org, call 574-773-7919, or find th,e Nappanee Public Library on Facebook.