TERRE HAUTE —
Of all the sentences I’ve imagined writing in my long, moss-covered newspaper career, this is not one of them: I am quitting my job to get married.
Just a few years from Social Security and Medicare — if they don’t keep moving the finish line — I no more saw myself hanging up my scribe spikes early than I saw myself calling somebody “husband.” I was a happy spinster and career gal, content with friends, family, a barge full of great experiences and a relatively secure job that has never been about making much money.
But the problem with humans is, we can see ourselves only in the past and present. We really don’t know what’s coming at us, no matter how much we pretend we can plan for all contingencies. As I have written before, a wonderful man named Bill came my way and I have been persuaded to leave the road-less-traveled.
Right about here I need to call time-out to qualify what I just said: I am quitting my job at the Tribune-Star because I’m getting married in a few months, but — sorry, Tom, Mike, John, Ray and the rest of the letter-writing critics — I’m not disappearing forever from the opinion page.
After my Jan. 2 column, I plan to take time off, then return to the Trib-Star as a freelancer. Same opinions (sorry, again, gents), just not as often and minus my other full-time duties here. Readers who think I write only on Sundays probably won’t notice a thing.
I suppose I could sever all ties to the newspaper business (except as a subscriber), but I’d just as soon not conduct that experiment. Other than a four-year stint at a magazine in the early 1970s, I have worked at a newspaper since I was 19 years old. I have been a sports reporter, a higher education beat reporter, a general assignment reporter, a feature writer, a columnist, an editorial writer, an editor, and I have spent time at that most fulfilling, difficult news task, investigative journalism.
As you have read before in this space, I love newspapers, newspapering and newspaper people. Like cops and EMTs, we keep weird hours, get too much salt in our diet, lean toward inky dark humor and routinely see people at their most vulnerable, nasty, generous and triumphant. If a newspaper person is bored on the job, he or she belongs in another line of work.
Conservative pundits think they invented newspaper bashing, but print journalists have never been revered by society. One of my all-time favorite lines about the business is from the 1940 film “His Girl Friday,” with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Playing the tough, veteran reporter, Hildy Johnson, Russell listens as a beleaguered news subject complains about the cynical and cruel patter of a bunch of city hall beat reporters.
“Why, they ain’t human, Miss Johnson,” the woman says.
“Of course they ain’t human,” Hildy replies, “they’re newspaper men.”
That was 70 years ago. Then, we had no hearts; now, we’re part of a vast liberal media conspiracy that is bankrolled by George Soros. (Still waiting for my hush money, George. Any day.)
A little more than six years ago, when I took over a vacated desk in the Trib-Star newsroom, I was grateful for the hiring window that allowed Max Jones to add me to the team roster. Relocated back to Indiana after 29 years in San Francisco, grieving my dad who died in October 2004 (and grieving my friends and home so far away), I found solace in the familiarity of daily newspapering.
I’d left a staff of hundreds for a staff you can count on your fingers and toes, but my colleagues — and our work — were no different from any I had experienced over the decades. Sometimes, after a long day, I would walk into the parking lot and be startled to realize I wasn’t in San Francisco. The workday was done, another newspaper was headed for bed, my world was as it had always been.
Because I am leaving as a full-timer, I can now state that anyone who isn’t in newspapering can’t appreciate how hard the reporters, photographers and editors of the Tribune-Star work to put out this paper. Whenever I hear people criticize our news coverage or complain that “you guys never dig into any real stories,” I want to bring them into the building and defy them to do what a handful of folks, working on Clinton-era computers, manages to accomplish, day in and day out, 365 news cycles a year.
One of my most treasured days in journalism, ever, was June 7, 2008, when a taped-together Saturday staff went into overdrive to cover the story of widespread flooding throughout the Valley. I still remember the moment news editor Zach Taylor and I were looking at a stunning aerial photo by Jim Avelis on Zach’s Macintosh. I wondered aloud how big we could run it. With a few clicks and keyboard strokes, Zach blew it up and it became one of the most dramatic page-ones I’ve ever seen.
But the symbol of that day — and of the business I love — was septuagenarian sportswriter Tom Reck. Soaking wet and in his sock feet, he came straight from his evacuated apartment to the newsroom, downed a cup of coffee and wrote a first-person account of his escape from fast-rising flood waters. That’s a newspaperman.
As I mentioned, my past six years would not have been possible without Max Jones. As editor, he takes regular heat for letting a liberal have her say here in the heartland, and he has backed my right to express my opinion even when he did not share it. (Max is old-fashioned that way; he really believes in the First Amendment.)
In Susan Duncan, assistant editor for news, I have found a friend, sister professional and a role model for the kind of “boss” I tried to be when I was promoted to the one and only managerial spot I expect ever to occupy. Take her out of the equation and my shelf of journalism awards would be much barer, my therapy bills sky-high.
As for publisher B.J. Riley, we have only a little history, but I recognize in him a crackerjack businessman who loves newspapers and respects the people who put them out. (Believe me, I cannot say that for many of the other publishers I have known over 40 years.) B.J., too, takes heat for giving me a forum, and I appreciate his offer to take some more when I return in the spring.
The last of the kudos goes to the readers of the Tribune-Star. Without you (and your renewed subscriptions), none of us would be here.
I confess, I didn’t expect much enthusiasm or support from you, but you surprised me from the beginning. For one thing, there are a lot more liberals in these parts than most people, including liberals, imagine. (Debs lives!) For another thing, even readers who tend to disagree with me still hear me out. I look forward to our continued exchanges.
Thursday, I will follow tradition and share my own eclectic roundup of notable people who’ve passed from our midst in 2010. Next Sunday, I’ll say au revoir with another blast about Indiana public education. After that, Tom, Mike, John, Ray, et al — you get the rest of the winter Salter-free.
Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.
Opinion
Stephanie Salter: I've got some really good news for some of you guys
- Opinion
-
-
RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
Someone wrote or said a few years ago a statement that would define the word “Hoosier.” According to this urban legend, a Hoosier is somebody dribbling a basketball around the Indy 500 while eating a fried, morel mushroom. It did not define me, at the time.
-
EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
-
READERS' FORUM: May 17, 2013
Hinduism doesn’t deserve ridicule — Shefali Purohit, Terre Haute
-
RONN MOTT: Israel’s Air Force
Recently the Israeli Air Force bombed and rocketed a convoy leaving Syria going to Lebanon with rockets that were going to be used to attack Israel. It did not get there. It was destroyed.
-
EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
-
Readers' Forum: May 16, 2013
Moving Deming folks sounds ‘nuts’
-
Readers' Forum: May 15, 2013
Participants rise to the challenge: I would like to write a letter congratulating all the Wabash Valley Roadrunners that competed in the One America Indianapolis Mini Marathon.
-
RONN MOTT: Media merry-go-round
Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. That isn’t a unique phrase to this writer or to this era in time. But, when it comes to the musical chairs of broadcasting, it certainly applies.
-
LIZ CIANCONE: Courts see a different appearance than cops
Have you ever noticed the transformation between the arrest of an accused lawbreaker and the first appearance in court?
-
READERS' FORUM: May 14, 2013
ISTEP failure exposes flaws
Community hasn’t changed its spirit
Egregious threat to nation’s defense
-
READERS' FORUM: May 13, 2013
• Women’s group criticizes Bucshon
• Let’s hope this doesn’t come true
• Many get thanks for fest success
-
MARK BENNETT: Life at face value: Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable daily challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research.
(Unless, of course, your mother is a scientific researcher. If so, carry a No. 2 pencil and take good notes.) -
EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
-
GUEST COLUMN: Nursing more than medicine and bandages
Being a nurse … Like most nurses, I chose this profession because I had a strong desire to help others and no other career would allow me the opportunity to touch lives the way I have been able to through nursing.
-
READERS' FORUM: May 12, 2013
Vigo Youth Football, entering 45th year, seeks new support
Media ignoring important case on abortions
Proud to be old-fashioned
Guns in school? What’s next?
Promoting hate not a ‘brave’ act
-
FLASHPOINT: Again in 2013 General Assembly, middle class generally ignored
Last year, the people of Indiana entrusted the Republican Party with some of their most precious possessions.
-
RONN MOTT: ‘Raccoons II’
In the Algonquin Indian language, raccoon means “working with hands.” They are really cute little fellows until they injure a child, or a pet, or leave feces around where you certainly do not want it.
-
Readers’ Forum: May 11, 2013
I just wanted to express my disappointment at the lack of response shown by President Obama after the Boston Marathon bombings.
-
Readers' Forum: May 10, 2013
CANDLES event plants new seed: On April 26, CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center hosted an event called “Sowing Seeds of Peace: A Celebration of Spring” at the Apple House. Our purpose was to introduce people to our concept of forgiveness as a seed for peace.
-
RONN MOTT: ‘NRA Convention’
At the recent NRA Convention in Houston, Texas, where the right-wing political hot air almost lifted the convention's building off its foundation, the NRA trotted out the forever yours political dame of the right wing, Sarah Palin. Sarah did not disappoint.
-
EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
-
Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
-
EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
-
RONN MOTT: ‘Heritage gone’
The last high school I attended was being torn down just a few days ago. I didn't learn about it until I saw classmate Dick Mills on television and a display he had put together about State football championships in the middle 1930's. I began elementary school with Dick Mills. That was Matthew South Elementary School on South Sixth Street in Clinton, Indiana. After seeing Dick on TV, it dawned on me that all schools I had attended in Clinton have been torn down.
-
LIZ CIANCONE: We always want more than we need
Washington seems more preoccupied with the unemployment rate than they are about the constant stalemate. Still with thousands out of work and the unemployment rate hovering somewhere between 7 percent and 9 percent, it does deserve more than a passing nod.
-
FLASHPOINT: Indiana lawmakers reinforced school safety mechanisms
Nothing is more important to me than the safety of my children. Every parent has felt that instant, apprehensive rush when their child plays too close to the street or falls down while playing soccer and it is our responsibility as parents to implement every safety mechanism we can muster to protect our kids.
-
READERS’ FORUM: May 6, 2013
• Money drives our newfound ‘needs’
• Guns not the only dangerous objects
-
MARK BENNETT: Should I stay or should I go?
Some have their Bill Clinton-era Cavalier packed (with the trunk bungee-ed shut), apartment cleaned (except for the fridge), and iPhone GPS locked onto the fastest route out of Terre Haute. Others are staying — until they find a better job, or because they’re starting a career here, or because this town feels like home. In each case, a new stage of life begins today.
-
EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
-
College Class of '13 gets a little extra advice
Local college grads will hear commencement speakers offer life and career advice this month. We’re offering them an extra dose here from folks who’ve found success in various vocations and regions of the nation. Many have Terre Haute roots.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
NM Mom Chases Down Child Abductor
Raw: Crash Sends Car Into Fla. Pool
Raw: Obama Sits Down With Elementary Kids
Dying Man's Blinks Lead to Murder Conviction
Wash. State Releases Draft Rules for Legal Pot
Raw: Driver Ejected From Truck, Over Bridge
Wind Energy Push Leaves Trail of Dead Eagles
Raw: Germany Protestors Picket Barbie House
Horse Saved From Slaughter, Goes on to Win Big
Ousted IRS Chief: Errors Not Caused by Politics
Music Therapy Bonds Parents and Preemies
Terror Suspect Due in Court in Idaho Friday
Tensions As Israel Targets Syria in Airstrikes
Fmr. IRS Head Insists No Politics in Targeting
Raw: Spacewalking Astronauts Hope to Stop Leak
Obama: 'Couldn't Be Prouder' of Jason Collins
Raw: Bear Falls From Tampa Tree
Officials Arrest Man in Idaho in Terrorism Case
Today in History, May 6th
Raw: Child, Stroller Falls Onto Pa. Train Tracks
Lotto Fever Sweeps the Country
Coffee Stop Leads To Arrest Of YouTube Sensation Wanted For Murder
Bearded Dragon Reunited With Owner
Marine Reunited with Warzone Companion
Beyonce Is Pregnant!
SF baseball player overpaid $500,000 RETURNS money -- and team says KEEP IT
$1 Million in Jewels Stolen at Cannes Film Fest
Dad returns from Afghanistan, surprises family during Rays' first pitch
See Jennifer Lopez's New $10m Hamptons Mansion
Woman tricked into taking abortion pill
Emma Watson Goes Pantless
IRS scandal: Republicans seek to tie Obama to agency's woes
Play of the Day: Flipping to Safety
Pregnant Kim Kardashian Squeezes Her Swollen Feet Into Stilettos
Top Videos of the Week: Angry Taco Bell Guy, Glacier Moves on House, Dog Hates Baths
Cindy Crawford Stuns At Cannes
Raw: Marines Come to Obama's Aid in the Rain
CUTE: Monkey shares lollipop with dog, then HITS pooch on head with it
Miranda Kerr Looks Sexy in a Bikini Photo Shoot
