by Blaine Howerton | NorthFortyNews.com
Most people who were old enough to understand what was happening on September 11, 2001, remember where they were.
I was at Denver International Airport.
I was there working as a journalist, covering the local airport response as the attacks unfolded. I watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center on a live camera monitor. A growing group of people gathered around that monitor with me, watching something none of us could fully comprehend.
The trains at DIA were shut down. The airport went into lockdown. Travelers were stranded. Information was coming quickly, and much of it was uncertain.
I was covering the attacks from Colorado, trying to tell people what was happening at our airport.
I had no idea where that day would lead.
I certainly never imagined that 25 years later I would own a newspaper. I never imagined everything our country would experience during the quarter-century that followed.
But I was covering the news then, and I am covering it now.
Not for self-glorification. Not because I believe the person writing the story should become part of it. I do it because journalism is what I have always done.
I started as a journalist in high school. I worked as a journalist through college. Now, at 51, I am still doing it.
September 11 was one of the most tragic stories I covered, but it wasn’t the last. Over the years, I have covered fires, deaths, disasters, shootings, conflict and moments when communities were frightened, grieving or simply trying to understand what had happened.
There is a reason I kept doing it.
Public knowledge is necessary.
That idea means something especially important to me this week.
Our cover commemorates the 25th anniversary of September 11, and on pages 10–11 we tell the story of Northern Colorado firefighters and community members gathering at Canvas Stadium for the Poudre Fire Authority 9/11 Stair Climb. The event remembers those killed that morning, the first responders who ran toward danger and those whose lives were shortened by the consequences of the attacks in the years afterward.
But look beyond the cover, because the rest of this edition demonstrates why local journalism matters, too.
We report on a nearly century-old ranger station in Buckhorn Canyon that has been restored after years of deterioration and vandalism. We tell readers about Wellington’s new economic development policy and a major fulfillment center in Loveland expected to employ more than 1,000 people. We report what investigators determined caused a garage fire in Greeley — including the important fact that the electric vehicle itself was not responsible.
We tell you what is happening in your community. There are pages of events from across Northern Colorado. There are stories about local businesses, gardens, history and people doing things that affect the places where we live.
None of those stories compares with the magnitude of September 11.
They don’t have to.
Journalism isn’t only about documenting history’s biggest moments. It is about giving people the information they need to understand their own community every day.
That belief is also why I saved North Forty News nearly 10 years ago.
Public knowledge is necessary.
Today, I work on this newspaper seven days a week. I write stories every day. I edit. I build pages. I work on the website. I sell advertising. I answer emails. I fix things when they break. I run the business.
And because journalism doesn’t exactly make me wealthy, I work three jobs.
I’m not saying that looking for sympathy. I don’t want it.
I’m saying it because, after all these years, I still believe the work matters.
A community should know what its government is doing. It should know when a road closes, when a business opens, when firefighters determine why a house caught fire, when an organization needs help, when something worth celebrating happens and when tragedy strikes.
People should know what is happening around them.
Twenty-five years ago, I stood inside a locked-down airport with strangers gathered around a monitor as we watched history unfold. My job was to find out what was happening and tell people what I knew.
The technology has changed. The newspaper has changed. My life certainly has changed.
The reason for doing the work hasn’t.
On this 25th anniversary of September 11, we remember the nearly 3,000 people who went about an ordinary Tuesday morning and never came home. We remember the first responders who moved toward danger. And we remember how suddenly an ordinary day can become history.
That is why we remember.
And it is one reason we keep reporting.
Because public knowledge is necessary.
Read our e-edition every week as soon as it is released at northfortynews.com/this-week.
— Blaine Howerton
Publisher & Executive Editor
North Forty News