A Fond Fetch Farewell

Dear Readers: Welcome to my final article for Fetchyournews.com. Before I sail off into the sunset of cyberspace, though, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Fetchyournews.com for the opportunity to serve your communities. It has been an honor to serve you, bringing you local news for the past two years.

Over this time, I have come to know many of you. And, those I haven’t met personally, I’ve met through your blog posts in response to my articles. In the last two years, my articles have met both positive and negative comments. In one way or another, I have welcomed each comment, no matter how critical. And, of course, I’ve basked unabashedly in the few lauding my work.

This has been an extraordinary experience for me, to participate in a dialogue of local issues, to engage in debates and discussions affecting lives and livelihood. The result of two converging sides of a conversation is always a new perspective, if not higher comprehension of the issue at hand, and always a fresh understanding. I know this was and is true for me. As such, I thank you for this, for offering the other, necessary side of a pressing dialogue. And, I’d like to think that the secondary result, in addition to a higher understanding, was friendship, if only distant and obscure.

Also, in my brief tenure I’ve learned a few important quirks about writing news. But, the one most apparent to me is this: some people like what you write because they agree with you unwaveringly or the situation; and some people don’t like what you write because they don’t agree with you or the situation. Over the last two years, I’ve worked diligently to avoid opinion, walking the perilous path all journalists walk sooner or later. No matter how dangerously close I may have come to including my opinions in my articles, I hope I presented each topic objectively and if not objectively, at least honestly.

In addition to honing my reporting skills, I’ve learned the importance of civic duty and the irreplaceable importance of involvement in the civic process, not to mention the necessary patriotism and faith which provide the foundation of any level of public participation. You have modeled these virtues for me, inspiring me to imitation. Thank you.

“Journalism,”

G.K. Chesterton says,

“Consists of saying. ‘Lord Jones is Dead’ to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.”

If nothing else, for my part, I hope I showed you that a few Lord Jones’ are still alive. Chesterton also says that even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel.

So, I would like to thank everyone at Fetchyournews.com for making me better than I was before, both personally and professionally. I would especially like to thank Fetchyournews.com CEO Brian Pritchard for giving me the chance to write and report, for giving a bad shot a chance to be dignified.

With warm thoughts, I will keep all of you in my prayers. God Bless!