It was another time of great peril. The country was on the verge of civil war in 1861, when Abraham Lincoln boarded a train to Washington to assume the presidency.
At a station stop in Illinois, Lincoln told well-wishers:
“Let us believe, as some poet has expressed it: ‘Behind the cloud the sun is still shining.’ ” So says the account in Carl Sandburg’s book The Prairie Years.
It is my nature, too, to look for silver linings, no matter how small, in difficult times. Let me tell you about some measure of good I’ve seen behind the murderous clouds that billowed up from the twin towers.
For starters, we’ve all witnessed the heroism, generosity, patriotism and faith that have been part of the story.
Newspapers across America have performed a public service by reporting and explaining these horrific events and serving as a communications node for ideas.
Television gave us instant and vivid images. Newspapers offered details that furthered understanding.
I think the The Inquirer’s performance since the attack has been superb. Let me hasten to add that my opinion is supported by the messages the paper has received from readers.
They’ve called and written to thank the paper for coverage they said helped them make sense of the news by putting it into context. They’ve mentioned the excellent writing; the editorials that leavened the calls for blood, and articles that helped them begin to heal.
Reader Douglas Rorapaugh, a lay minister at a Center City church, described the paper as solid earth when the whole world seemed to be shifting.
“Although most of us have gained this week a new appreciation for the instability and fragility of our world, you provide us with something resembling firm ground on which to stand as we begin in earnest to grieve, to heal our wounds … and to orient ourselves to the world in which we now know we live,” he wrote.
Readers said they appreciated that they could read the news when and how they chose. They could linger over photos and stop to think about what they’d read.
“I now realize why the good old newspaper is so important,” wrote Mary Sinnott, an associate professor at Temple University. “It allows us to experience these events on our time – when we can concentrate, reflect and shed conscious tears instead of reactive ones.”
The newspaper allows readers “to hold the events in our hands,” she said.
Words like these are deeply satisfying to the journalists who have worked long hours, sacrificing time with their own families.
The coverage has been important on another level, too. Over the last nine months, the paper has lost 80 people in buyouts from a newsroom staff of about 600. The lingering question for those of us who had watched many talented people go – whether the paper could still produce first-class work – was answered resoundingly.
Not that any of us would want to learn the answer this way. Still, it’s good to know The Inquirer remains a newspaper of big shoulders.
Company chairman Tony Ridder, in a message to all Knight-Ridder newspapers, last week articulated the role of a newspaper in a crisis. He said he had told editors in a conference call: “Leave no stone unturned in pursuing this story. Do the right thing by readers.”
Readers themselves have reason to be proud of how they have responded. They turned the paper into a community bulletin board, tacking up poetry, letters and their suggestions. We’ve heard their ideas on everything from printing a flag in the paper to sending the tax rebates back to Washington.
It is against this backdrop that the paper tomorrow night will convene its first readers’ roundtable. Twelve readers were selected out of the 86 who applied. It was hard to choose because we have so many faithful readers with so much to offer. Another silver lining.
