Needed to get this off my chest

Sometimes, being in the news business is damn difficult. At least for me. And I’m not ashamed to say that the tears come, whether I want them to or not. Child abuse cases are the worst, and there seems to be a lot of them lately.
Just this past week, a judge granted a defense request to retain a forensic pathologist to review the medical files of a 3-week-old boy who authorities say was injured by his father.
And in another case, a forensic pathologist testified that a 7-year-old Russian-born boy was starved, beaten and possibly bound. His adoptive parents are accused in his death.
Those of you who read my blog regularly will remember the video I posted recently on 2-year-old Darisabel Baez who was beaten to death by her mother’s boyfriend. The weapons: a video game cord, one of the Darisabel’s hiking boots and his fists.
I can’t imagine how difficult it is for those who work in law enforcement, social services, health care and so many other careers who must deal with these horrors every day. I could never do it.
For me, being able to tell these stories gives me hope that good things will result. Maybe someone will read our story and alert authorities sooner if they suspect child abuse and a child will be saved. I suppose that’s one of the main reasons I became a journalist. I believe in telling the truth. Of holding a mirror up to the world. Not to judge, but to tell stories honestly and thoroughly and let you, our readers, decide.
Still, I cry. I cry for all of these children and so many others like them who were powerless and innocent, who never had a chance to grow up and have children of their own.
Sometimes, I get so angry that I want to punch something, anything.
I’ve considered if it would be better if I didn’t feel. If I didn’t get angry or cry. But I think not. I think that as journalists we tell the stories that need to be told. It’s who we are, what we’ve been called to do. We have no choice.
And in the reporting of these stories, I think it’s OK to cry, to be human. If we’re able to bring that human connection to our readers and have them feel too, well, then, we’ve done our job. And maybe, just maybe, it will be a story that will save a Darisabel.
Thanks for reading and allowing me to get this off my chest. Seemed like a good place to do it among followers and friends who at least get some of what I do and the person I am.