Happy Halloween! 

I'm one of those people who loves a good ghost story. Friday morning as I was getting ready for work, I was listening to the morning show on 89x (88.7 fm) as I do every morning. I was drying my hair so I couldn't hear it real well, but I did hear them say something about a crew staying the night in a haunted building, then I heard the building was in Trenton (a city I cover) and I was instantly excited to come to work and write a story in hopes that some others would find it as intriguing as I did.

Growing up I loved to read books and articles about haunted places. I used to get excited for the paranormal investigation television shows to come on the Travel Channel. A shelf on my bookshelf was dedicated to books about haunted lighthouses throughout the country and haunted buildings in Michigan.

A few weeks ago I was walking through a downtown area in my hometown with an old friend and some others who weren't from there. As we passed an old theater that we used to spend a lot of time in, my friend and I shared our stories of the ghosts we saw in the lightbooth and sitting in the seats. I was happy to share the stories, but then instantly wondered how many people in our group thought I was crazy for thinking I've seen ghosts before...

When I was describing to others what the paranormal teams were doing in Trenton, I found myself continuously saying, "the place is allegedly haunted" and "there are supposedly ghosts in the building."

And that, my friends, was the journalist coming out in me. It becomes a habit to not say things that make people think you're bias in any way, even about silly things like haunted buildings the week before Halloween.

When we posted the story on our Facebook, it asked if people believe in ghosts. Some people said yes. Some said absolutely not. Some said they believe in spirits, not ghosts. Either way, it was a fun story that got some readers' attention.

This morning I made sure to tune in to the radio station for the discussion on what happened Friday night. I wouldn't even dry my hair until after the segment was over because I wanted to hear about it. I listened to the audio and watched the videos. I had goosebumps listening to it and was so interested to hear what they experienced.

So in the spirit of Halloween day, I'm letting go of my journalistic mindset and admitting that I love the stories of hauntings and would be geeked to spend a night with paranormal investigators in a haunted building.

Send me an email (eperdue@heritage.com) or Facebook message me (www.facebook.com/EPjournalist) with any haunted experiences you've had! I would love to read them!

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes, because it's about journalism and being a moralist. It applies here and in my everyday life, honestly. It's a quote that I agree with sometimes and disagree with other times.

"Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It’s absolutely unavoidable. A journalist is someone who looks at the world and the way it works, someone who takes a close look at things every day and reports what she sees, someone who represents the world, the event, for others. She cannot do her work without judging what she sees."

 -   Marguerite Duras Outside: Selected Writings

Could you describe a journalist's job duties?

It's a difficult thing to describe and it does include a lot. But I can promise you it doesn't include some of the things many people think it does.

You can ask a journalist to do a lot. We can ask questions for stories, do some investigating and publish stories to make the public aware ... we do a lot of dirty work, but we can't do these things without solid reason. We can't write something that we don't have complete proof is true. We can't write something just because someone is angry at their ex-husband. We can't call places and tell them how you feel just because you don't want to.

This morning when I came into the office I had a lovely voicemail from an older man with a raspy voice. He left it late last night and it said:

"Hello ma’am,

You have this trial for this man, or boy, who killed that police officer in Taylor. If you know this he’s in the center of a court room and he needs to be handcuffed and shackled so he can never hurt anybody again in his life. He’s that type of man who if he can get a gun in that court room he will. He’s an evil individual his record speaks for itself and then once he’s sentenced personally I’d say kill him, I’d like to personally kill him. That man should be put in solitary confinement for every day for the rest of his life then he can never hurt nobody again.

That man, that boy, is a piece of (explicit) and if you don’t relay this message to the court about him being shackled you’re a piece of (explicit) too. And he deserves whatever comes to him, especially death, but I advise you notify the court and say he needs to be shackled for real and he needs two deputies on his side at all times. He should never have an eye taken off him, never."

It came form an unknown number and he didn't leave a name.

When I first listened to this today I hung up at the "I'd say kill him" part. I needed to take a breath and prepare myself to hear the rest. Then I listened to it all. 

After laughing about the absurdity of this anonymous voicemail I started to wonder, why on earth do I need to call the court for this guy to tell them that? If he can call me anonymously, can't he call them anonymously? It made no sense.

Relaying such a message to a court of law is not in the job description. And why in the world would a court official listen to a Downriver journalist? We got power, but we ain't got that kind of power.

It's not uncommon to receive angry voicemails from readers. I've had people leave messages complaining and admitting that they don't really know why they're calling other than to let me know how they feel about something. There's a lot of listening involved in journalism.

There's more criticism than anything in journalism. Stories about crime get the most hits on the website so people obviously read it, but then they complain that we don't do enough positive stories. There are always people happy about a story, and then there are always angry about a story. We're constantly accused of being bias and choosing sides, no matter what. It's a never-ending battle and you just have to accept that you can never make everyone happy.

You have to have tough skin to be a journalist, that's for sure. When people insult you it's best to laugh it off. We joke here in the newsroom all the time about the various insults we've received. Then you'll have someone contact you with praise, and it will trump all of the negative comments.

So, despite the insults, demands and explicit names I've been called, I love being a journalist and it only makes me aware that you're reading my work when commentaries are left! It is in our job description to write work that captures the readers' eyes and any feedback is evidence that we're succeeding!

Catch ya' later, Internet World! :)

"Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you're at it." - Horace Greeley

Yesterday I accompanied News-Herald Staff Writer David Komer to the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit for the first day of a murder trial.

I didn't work for The News-Herald when the murder occurred, but here's a short summary of the story:

Taylor Police Officer Matthew Edwards, 31, was killed at about 6 a.m. July 23 2010 after he was hit by six gunshots, including one to the back of his head. The shooting occurred at Coppertree Apartments, off North Line Road east of Telegraph Road, as Edwards and his partner were investigating a breaking-and-entering report. Tyress Mathews also suffered several gunshot wounds in the ensuing altercation. A witness said he saw Mathews’ pull a black gun out of the backpack and raise it sideways over Edwards’ head and shoot down. After Edwards’ fell, a witness and Edwards' partner said, Mathews fired five more shots into Edwards, who was on the ground.

Komer and I got to court and went through security (where for the fourth time I was asked if I'm an attorney instead of a journalist, a sign maybe?). Then we waited outside the courtroom for about an hour. There were people near us greeting each other in tears.

Since it was the first day of court it was the jury selection. They started to sort through the 62 jurors in the room. In case you're not aware, 62 jurors is A LOT. There wasn't even room for them all to sit down.

While Komer took notes to write a story, I did live tweets from my Twitter account. It was the first time I had done something like that and it went over really well! (I really do adore social media!) People were following me, using the same hash tag and retweeting my tweets. So many people were interested about what was going on in the courtroom. Then I realized, heck, I'd be pretty darn curious too if I wasn't there.

The defendant, Tyress Mathews, is charged with first-degree murder, punishable by life in prison without parole; murder of a peace officer, punishable by life in prison without parole; assault with intent to murder, punishable by life in prison or any term of years; being a felon in possession of a firearm, punishable by five years in prison; felony use of a firearm, a mandatory two-year sentence; and as a habitual offender-fourth offense, which is punishable by life in prison if the primary offense has a penalty of five years in prison or more.

 Mathews sat facing his attorney, Todd Perkins, and the gallery of jurors. He occasionally looked over at us and raised an eyebrow. It was creepy and eerie. To imagine what he did to a man, a police officer at that, is a scary thought alone.

He just sat there. Emotionless. No smiles; no frowns. He rubbed his eyes once, when the Judge read off his charges.

Then he sat there while each juror answered questions. He just looked at them.

Five jurors were excused before the lunch break at 12:30 p.m. Two were dismissed for work related reasons (not getting paid for more than a few days of jury duty). One was dismissed for college courses.

Then there were two women with quite the excuses. One woman said she's bipolar and has disliked the prosecutors in other trials so she shouldn't be there. Another woman said that she's uncomfortable deciding a man's innocence, when that didn't work she said that her "woman pains" become so unbearable that she can't sit still for more than an hour. The Judge dismissed her.

The media was told by the court clerk to not even look at the jurors. When I posted that on Twitter, every journalist I know was blown away. People really think we're the bad ones, but you'd be really upset if we weren't there to give you a play-by-play ... even if it's just what the jurors' excuses for dismissal were.

On that note, today the jury selection finished up and the trial began. Komer was there to report play-by-play. The trial will go on for at least two weeks. Follow our website, twitter and of course, me on here, for your updates on this trial and everything else Downriver related!

Catch ya later, Internet World!


"I am deeply interested in the progress and elevation of journalism, having spent my life in that profession, regarding it as a noble profession and one of unequaled importance for its influence upon the minds and morals of the people." - Joseph Pulitzer 

We all know (and most of us hate) the cliche saying, "It's a small world."

As cliche and annoying as it may be, it's so true. Last week a story fell upon me that had to do with a city I cover and the city I grew up in, worked in and still live in.

I worked for the parks and recreation department in Wayne for almost seven years before working at The News-Herald. I also wrote for the Wayne paper. Through both of those I knew a lot of people in Wayne. I attended council meetings regularly to hear about updates on whether they were closing the parks and rec building or not, so I knew who was advocating to close and who wasn't.

I was already with The News-Herald when the filing deadline for council candidates came about, but I still followed very closely who was running. Someone was running who I knew had a bad record in the city of Wayne and other neighboring cities. Ok, so I know I'm not voting for him. That's that.

Until last week, when I wrote a story about this whole deal. I was able to get the police reports and court records which stated that in February he pleaded guilty to providing minors with alcohol. He was given one year of probation, which orders: he wear an alcohol monitoring tether for 60 days; have no contact with nine former and current Riverview students either in person, through phone or via the Internet/computer; continue mental health counseling; forfeit his cellphone; do not go within 1,000 feet of any school/place where children congregate; have no unsupervised contact with minors under age 17; and mandatory incarceration for violation of his probation.

So of course, I wrote a story. It went live online late afternoon Friday. It was on the front page of Sunday's paper. I posted the story on a few Facebook pages, one being the Facebook of the Wayne Dispatch Newspaper.

And the hate-mail began. I was accused of only writing this story because I wanted another candidate to win council (mind you there are three other candidates, none of whom were mentioned in the article). I was told that posting it on a Wayne page proved my bias. I was called a "terrible reporter" and "breaking every rule of journalism."

All of these things were said by people advocating for the candidate. Does it bother me that they didn't like the story? Not at all. They read my story after all.

Eleven residents in Wayne contacted me to thank me for the story because they were unaware of these charges. Five residents in Riverview contacted me to thank me for the story because they don't want someone who "wronged" their students/children to hold a position of authority in any city.

Sanders posted on a Facebook page that he and his friends created a few months ago to advocate "change for the city of Wayne."

It reads: "Ok. So here it goes. My name is Chris Sanders and I am running for City Council. It has never been a secret that I have had an extremely bad five years. First, January 6, 2006 a under age drinking party was held at my home and 2 fake id's were found on the coffee table in the house when the police arrived. Let it be known that I am the one who called the police that evening. I was not there not did I supply the alcohol. I tried, with the help of counsel to find a way out of this legal predicament, however, because my home is by law an extension of my person, there was no deal. I completed my probation without incident! Second, the Riverview incident happened on October 30, 2010. I was contacted by an individual to rent a limosuine for a person home from Marine bootcamp. This individual was 20 years old. I did it under my company name because it was a business transaction. Plane and simple!!!!! It is my undertanding that the downriver "party patrol" had recieved word that this individual was going to have a party by an individual that wasn't invited. They tailed the limosuine. Again, I was not present, nor did I purchase alcohol for for minors. I was issued a citation as were all the children and the limosuine driver. The limosuine company was not because they were incorporated. It is quite disengenuous of some to suggest that I am a danger to children or worse. Atleast one of you are feeding at the site of blood. Do not put blame on either John Rhaesa or Erica Persist, as they are only reporting. Hey, they are only reporting that which I have provided ammunition. It is my hope that people will see all the good that I have and continue to do for our community. I think it speaks a lot about my dedication to our city and the vision that I have for it. Knowing that this campaign would get ugly, I chose to run anyways."

 If you're asking if I reported on the 2006 incident - no, I did not. If you're asking if he wrote in here that he pleaded guilty - no, he did not. Also, if you're asking if my name is Erica Persist - no, it is not. But hey, he admitted to doing some wrong and providing me (or someone with my same first name) with ammunition.

Here are my questions:

* How can he be on council if he cannot be within 1,000 feet of a school or anywhere children congregate? City Hall in Wayne in located directly in front of one of the 17 parks in Wayne.
* His probation says he must be supervised when around children under 17. Who is going to take on the responsibility?
* He has recently been in schools and parks and is co-hosting an event this weekend in which children will be in attendance. How has none of this violated his probation?
* How am I in the wrong for writing a story that tells everyone what his probation orders entail?

It just seems scandalous and sketchy. It seems like there is a lot more behind the scenes that people don't know about. I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Riverview police for all police reports in his name. Today, WXYZ (local Channel 7) was at Wayne City Hall interviewing the city manager about the topic. Apparently word got out.

I told the people criticizing me for writing the story that it is newsworthy and it's something people should do. If you're running for a public office, you should know that your criminal past will be made public.

Oh, and the Michigan State Police conducted an investigation into how he obtained some signatures on a petition and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is pressing charges. You can read that in the story linked above. It's really just a little icing on the "charges cake."

Thanks for reading the blog and you should definitely read the story. And leave comments, whether you agree or disagree with me.

Check back for more stories on this topic and many other controversial items - as those seem to be my prime areas!

Catch ya later, Internet World!

"As journalists, we keep pushing and pushing." - Mary Hart

Before working at The News-Herald Newspapers, I worked for The Wayne Dispatch Newspaper. While being a part of the new newspaper I worked on a special project: Soldier of the Month.

Every month, I found someone from Wayne who was in the Army, Marines, Navy or Air Force and based away from home at the time. Then, I wrote an article about that person, included his or her address and a wish-list for readers to send letters and gifts. The amount of people and businesses who donated was amazing. Schools and girl scout troops participated and at one point half of my living room was consumed with items to mail out to a soldier. Veterans of Foreign War posts donated shipping money, too.

The reactions when soldiers started to receive their packages was thrilling. I kept in touch through Facebook and Skype with many of them, and still talk to a lot of them who are home now, and they tell how excited everyone always was to receive so many items. It's really something we take for granted.

Every time I heard the immense amount of thanks from a serviceman or servicewoman, I remembered even more how much I love being a journalist and that journalists can tell the good stories, not just the bad.

Within the first month of working at The News-Herald, I was given a printed out email from a woman who was explaining that her 20-year-old son had been paralyzed by a roadside bomb after only being there for nine days.

I called her immediately and left a message. When she returned my call I could hear the distress in her voice. I remember telling her to just tell me what she wanted to and I would ask non-probing questions after if necessary.

Chris Ochs

She started with, "He wanted to be a soldier since he was seven."

I had never met any of them and that comment still hit me hard. His childhood dream was crushed.

Chris Ochs graduated high school in 2009. He joined the army and was stationed at Fort Richardson, Alaska. He was in the service for a total of 17 months before being paralyzed. He had been on the ground, living out his childhood hopes, for just over a week before his life was changed forever.

He was in a vehicle with three others when the bomb hit them. Ochs' injuries were the most severe. He is now paralyzed from the waist down.

Ochs receiving Purple Heart

After the accident, he was sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. From there, he was transferred to Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond, Va.

He was presented with a Purple Heart while in the hospital by Brig. Gen. Warren Phipps, deputy commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division.

“His spirits have remained high and every day is a hurdle to jump in this new life we are living,” his mother told me.

The family's Flat Rock home is two stories. She said they needed help remodeling. They needed to accommodate a wheelchair; ramps, main-level bedroom and bathroom, etc.

“He got to go to the parking lot of the hospital and ride a bike, one of those where you pedal with your arms,” his mother said. “He had fun today. He enjoyed it.”

At that point he was still in the hospital.

At the beginning of July, he came home.

“I can speak on everyone’s behalf in saying Chris has been amazing,” his mother said. “He has remained positive and has adapted well. He has taught us how strong and determined one can be. We are so proud of him and we know he will have a bright future.”

Fundraisers have been held throughout southeastern Michigan for Chris. Dinners to lifting competitions, wheelchair donations to silent auctions - people have been supporting. A lot of people have been supporting.

I've done a few stories on Chris. Every time we've published something in the paper I've received phone calls from locals wanting to donate money. Elderly women who tell me, "I don't have much but want to write a check," make me want to cry in joy. The kindness in people is astonishing. Corporate companies have called and emailed me from as far as Illinois and Texas wanting to donate money. Local businesses have donated supplies to remodel the house.

When a local American Legion donated a motorized wheelchair to Chris I attended the small ceremony they had. It was the first time I met the Ochs family who I had spoken with so many times. Chris was funny and seemed so happy and comfortable. He had adapted so much to a new lifestyle, I couldn't believe it. He chased his little sister around in his wheelchair. He joked with everyone. It was uplifting.

It's great to do something for others and I'm lucky enough to not only partake in some of those things, but to also write about them and capture the memories in words for people to fall back on and remember the kind-hearted people who surround us.

It's a touching story. I've been able to write about a lot of touching stories, and I have my profession to thank for it. I've been honored to meet some great people.

Anderson upon arrival home

Nick Anderson was the first "Soldier of the Month" for the Wayne Dispatch and has become one of my best friends, if it wasn't for his dedication to the Army and my profession that would have never happened. When he returned to Wayne, he visited the school that collected items for him and the kids loved it. They asked him questions and took pictures with him.

Chris Ochs is an inspiration to us all. If it wasn't for him following his dream to be a serviceman and me just starting at The News-Herald, I wouldn't have been able to write such a tragic, yet amazing, story or meet someone with such a positive, uplifting personality.


Meeting people like them in my line of work is one of the best parts of being a journalist. Writing about people like them, and the people helping them, is what I love about journalism.

Catch ya later, Internet World.


I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives.  I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.  - Abraham Lincoln

I have to start by saying, "GO TIGERS!"

Is this not an amazing time for Detroit sports, and well, the city in general? The buzz in the newsroom today has definitely proved that it is! As journalists, we chat, quite often. We all discuss current events and stories ... the only thing we've discussed today is our excitement over the Tigers game. Today, being a journalist, means the exact same as being a crazy sports fanatic for the Detroit Tigers! And I love it!

The Tigers just ended the series with the Yankees to advance to the ALCS! It was such a close, intense game, too. Tigers and Yankees fans alike were on the edge of their seats (or like me, pacing around and hardly being able to sit for more than two pitches).

It was a little after midnight when Jose Valverde ended the game. The Tigers were only up by one run ... man, I'm worked up just recalling it. Anyways, I hopped on Facebook and Twitter on my phone at the end of the game to post my own comments about the win. As you can imagine, EVERY recent status update was about the Tigers.

A lot of us, especially journalists (because we're involved in groups to send our stories to that are stationed throughout the nation), are friends with people from across the country on Facebook and Twitter. So when we're posting positive things about Detroit's baseball team it's screaming to the rest of the country, "HEY! LOOK AT US! DETROIT IS STILL HERE AND ALIVE."

I don't mind rubbing it in the faces of the nay-sayers that Detroit has a lot to offer. Not just the Tigers either.

Of course, there are the Detroit Lions. I mean, holy shocker, right? It's been an incredible ride watching them win the first four games of the season!

And, my personal favorite sport of all time, the RED WINGS home-opener is tonight! And I mean, everyone knows the Wings will dominate as always this season. Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Helm, Howard ... these boys always have it in them to make it to the playoffs and Sir Stanley is due home.

So with all of our "downtown teams" dominating, the city is blossoming! Comerica has been packed just like Ford Field. People are going downtown more often. I've noticed that I myself go downtown for dinner and drinks about twice a week. It's such a fun place to be! I've actually been looking at apartments downtown so I can be right in the middle of the action.

There are many gems in the city and it's such a great place to be. Sure, it has it's bad parts. But so do Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, etc.

I encourage everyone to scream across the social media nation that the Detroit Tigers are the team to fear. Justin Verlander is going to annihilate the Rangers on Saturday. The Wings are going to start this season off right with their usual consecutive wins. The Lions are going to continue to impress us all Monday, that's right Monday, not Sunday.

It's an immensely incredible time for downtown Detroit to start thriving. And for those of you who are ashamed of telling people you're from the Detroit area because they may ask you the stereotypical questions, shame on you.

I expect to see all of your Detroit-rooting status updates and tweets over the weekend!

Catch ya later, Internet World! :)

GO TIGERS! GO RED WINGS! GO LIONS! GOOOO DETROIT!

"A culture, we all know, is made by its cities." - Derek Walcott

My story about the ongoing Detroit Street disputes is on the front page of today's paper. So, naturally, I've received some emails, Facebook messages and phone calls from angry people. More Facebook messages than anything though, ironic seeing as the story stems from a Facebook feud.

My blog yesterday about having your profession, or anything about you, insulted received a lot of hits and I thank all of you for reading. This in a way carries on from that blog, the social media blog and, of course, the ongoing disputes blog. 

The story has been online since the weekend and ran today in the paper. I came in this morning with two messages on Facebook saying that the media needs to stop writing stories about this situation and it will go away. Perhaps that is true, however, there is still social media ... the root of this issue.

People become addicted to social media. Have you walked down a busy street? People are either texting, facebooking, tweeting or something of the sort from phones several times a day. I'm guilty, too. But, hey, it's how we communicate.

So in honesty, whether or not I wrote the story, there was still going to be a feud. I just told people about it.

One insult I was honored to receive today was that I'm "sick individual" for writing about the story. Then, she concluded with, "You next story should be about how that needs psychiatric help."

Oh, really? My next story that I shouldn't write because I shouldn't have written this one? Geez, people, either like it or dislike it but it's confusing when you go back and forth.

No one really knows what's going on with the Petkov family vs. Rose family thing. There's been an issue that stemmed from a birthday party that someone was invited to a few summers ago. It apparently started on Myspace and the issues carried over the Facebook with the social media shift. Just a month ago there was still a hate page that "supporters" of the Rose family was constantly posting on.

Facebook, and social media in general (blogs, too!) give us a lot of opportunities to publicize private information. No one ever told you, "You are NOT allowed to post that you hate someone on Facebook." But I would think most adults know better than to do such a thing.

This isn't the only cyber-bullying story I've done in Trenton, either. The first story I ever wrote for The News-Herald was about a man who was trying to sue the city because they felt he didn't investigate his case well. He had multiple charges for cyber-stalking someone. The charges have since been dropped. But that was my introduction to cyber-bullying issues first-hand.

What prompts people to take Facebook and Twitter and every other form of social media to such obnoxious levels? Why would you want to use this tool to taunt people? Why?

So, no, angry readers...it's not me, or the journalists who have covered these stories before me that are to blame for the immaturity of people who are incapable of properly using the internet.

Social media is a right to speak your mind and make your own private feelings public. But that doesn't mean you should abuse it to the extent of intentionally harming someone else with it.

Come back tomorrow for an uplifting story about communities coming together to help a young soldier who was paralyzed in Afghanistan.

Catch ya later, Internet World.

"The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right."  - William Safire

As I've said in previous posts, journalists get to meet a lot of people. Some people are so sweet and intelligent it's mesmerizing ... other people are so cruel and ignorant, it's shocking. Either way, it's always a roller-coaster kind of feeling afterwards.

I was told by someone a few days ago that I don't have morals. There really wasn't a definite reason for this person saying so, but he apparently felt that I was not as highly moral as he.

Morals are something journalists joke about because it's common for others to think we're the worst people in the world (besides lawyers, of course). We're at crime scenes, we tend to ask a lot of questions, we make information public that some want to keep to themselves ... so, no, not everyone likes us.

However, that doesn't mean we don't have morals. Trust me, I've seen things and thought, "Wow, who could do this?" But, I've never said to someone, "You have no morals. People like you make this world a worse place."

People can be categorized into many different groups for judgmental reasons. You can split people by religion, race, language, hair color, weight and yes, profession.

But, isn't there a little lack of morality in every religion, race, language, hair color, weight and profession?

Let's say, you're the mayor of a city that is dealing with some form of corruption and you're trying to hide it from the public...isn't that a lack of morals? Or, less intense, you're in advertising and while trying to bring in the ad money you twist things. So, when as a journalist, I call to ask questions about something that happened, how does that make me less moral? I don't make these things happen. I cover the story when it does happen.

I also want to take a paragraph to remind people that ignorant insults fly around everyone. People are judgmental and harsh. Look at the Detroit Street blog for example, those people are harsh with their comments. Ignorant people will find any reason and way to spit out their opinions in hopes of offending someone. People will forever judge you by how you dress, which (if any) religion you practice, what you do in your free time and so, so many other reasons. As a journalist, I see this constantly. Half of the police reports I read, half of the complaints I hear, most of the crimes I write about ... a lot of stuff starts because a comment was made that wasn't thought about first or it had no foundation to ever be said.

Whether or not I have morals, I love what I do. And, I have the opportunity to let the world know about the people in my communities, the good and the bad.

Keep your head up. Someone's negative comments are always rooted in some form of ignorance.

Catch ya later, Internet World! :)

"By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community." - Oscar Wilde