I thought I published these, but I found it in my draft box with no body copy which I spent at least an hour on a few weeks ago. So here we go again.
As I walked into the small elementary school in Rosebush, Mich., just north of Mount Pleasant, I could feel the tension.
Some wanted me there and greeted me with punch and cookies. A woman approached me and asked why the paper wasn't around when the school was fighting its battle to stay open.
What do I say? I'm just a freelance photographer and in one way I feel for them. They are losing 60 years of history. It's the type of school where Mrs. Teacher taught your older brother, your mom and she plays euchre on the weekends with your grandmother who attended the school when it first opened.
Despite some of the families having to break six generations of tradition the other part of me feels this is the right thing to do.
Economically the school district is in a bind like many others in the country. Being in Michigan with the current economy only makes the situation worse. Everyday a newspaper in a local town some where is writing about X-school closing, or Y-cutting Z-jobs. Everything and everyone seems to be cutting and consolidating.
Looking at this situation I think to myself, it could be worse.
Not everyone sees it this way and I understand the pain. But by closing the school only two jobs will be cut in the school district. All of the Rosebush's teachers have been relocated with in the district. The two jobs were going to be cut regardless according the superintendent. More jobs were at risk if the school stayed open.
Again not everyone sees it this though.
I stood in the library analyzing what to say. She was awkwardly waiting for me to replay.
What do I say?
I can see the pain in her eyes, she doesn't have to say a word. I know exactly what she's thinking.
She's angry and drawing impatient.
I swallow hard and utter "I'm sorry."
The hardest part of being a journalist is holding your tongue when you clearly see the right and the wrong.
1 comment:
We did a lot of coverage of Rosebush closing, before and after the decision:( Sometimes people shoot the messenger, and you did the right thing. Just get out of it, and try to blend. IT gets harder and harder in this way working for a daily, because they chances of you knowing a person involved in an emotional story personally go up each year.
Also, as a photo "aside" the first time they decided to close it in the middle of the year, then retracted, the superintendent wouldn't let a photog. in to the school...it took multiple phone calls and emails from my boss to the super to get any access to that school at all...things the general public never knows:)
And good shots.
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