Yesterday, we received a phone call from a lady who said, “I was thinking of not getting The Daily Herald, but after seeing the front page (Friday, December 6, 2002) I definately will not.”
I’m sorry we are losing a reader, but what we did with our paper, was something that needed done.
It was with a lot of sadness that Friday’s Herald was put together. Chris Lash was sad when he wrote his commentary, Kerry Webster was sad when he wrote his story. I was sad that we had to put the paper out.
The sad thing is heroin is a problem that can hit anyone at anytime. It is hitting hard in our community and I am happy with the effort of the Blair County Drug Task Force and the effort they are making. Even if hits the desk next to mine.
Drugs destroy promising lives. They also destroy the families of users and dealers.
We could have easily swept the story under the rug, but every bit of creditability we have would have went under the rug with it.
It’s no secret that there are people in Tyrone who are not fans of mine. When one of those people walked in the paper today and said they were proud of how we handled the situation, it first shocked me and second made me feel that we as a group made the right decision.
When you break the law, you pay a price. If the violation of the law is bad enough, you make the papers.
Let me guarantee you that there was no joy here at the paper when we did our jobs on Thursday or Friday. Everyone of us made a personal relationship and everyone of us hurt in one way or another.
I will be the first to tell you, that if I would get arrested for driving under the influence or something like that, it would make front page news. Sad, but true.
When you live a ‘public’ life, your world is different than others. What I write has an impact on some people, others just say, there goes Harlow again.
That is one of my favorite things about opinions. You can agree or disagree.
If one person read Friday’s paper and it scared them into getting cleaned up and off heroin, our paper made a difference.
Overdoses happen. Most of the time when they do, there is a young child left without a mother or father.
You can be the most educated person in the world or barely get by in school and it can hit you.
Now the challenge is to continue to be dilligent in getting heroin out of Tyrone.
If you know someone is doing heroin or someone is dealing and not telling the authorities, you are as guilty as they are.
We have a problem that is taking over our community. The attitude it can’t happen here has to go out the window. It is happening here and we need to fight it.
I believe in second chances. I believe in people. I am not sorry for giving a guy a second chance, I am sorry it turned out the way it did. Will I give someone a second chance again? Yes I will. I still believe in people, even if things don’t turn out the way you hope.
My prayers go to the people affected by Thursday’s events. I also pray that the people who need it get the help they need. It’s sad to see so many promising lives get ruined for a high.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. Lets hope when we continue to lead people towards a better life, they are willing to do what it takes to become a good citizen.
P.S. To the reader who called, thanks for your call, but if you have something to say about our paper, don’t take it out on someone who answers the phone, ask for me.
