Good-bye, Baltimore; it’s been real

When I moved back to my hometown in March of 2006 to take this job, it was with a mix of excitement and trepidation. Creating a newspaper from scratch was a daunting, some might say even foolhardy, task. Could we really put out a newspaper with such a small staff? Would people really want to read it? If we all thought too hard about the uphill battle we faced, we never would have done it. Instead, we just rolled up our sleeves and dug in.

Before coming to The Examiner, I worked as an assistant city editor in New York City for Newsday. I survived covering 9/11, the anthrax attacks, the crash of Flight 587 in Queens, and the blackout in summer of 2003. When the paper offered buyouts in December of 2004, I was burned out and tired of New York and newspapers. I did some job hunting, then realized my heart wasn’t in it. I needed time off to regroup from five years at Newsday, and, before that, six years at the Miami Herald.

Fifteen months after I left Newsday, I walked into The Examiner offices to get back to work.

I was naive to think I could just walk away from newspapers. We journalists often question our sanity and our career choice. We work long hours, nights, weekends and holidays for not very much money. We miss holiday dinners, happy hours and parties. We rebuff calls from friends and loved ones with the hurriedly mumbled, “Can’t-talk-I’m-on-deadline.”

Still, we do it because we believe so strongly in what we do. We believe there are stories that need to be told, rights that need to be wronged, heroes who need to be lauded, and villains who need to be exposed. Is it easy? Never. It is gratifying? Always.

Working as the city editor in my hometown was a dream job. There are many people I’d like to thank. My team of reporters amazed me with their hard work, resourcefulness and tenacity. Stephen Janis, Jaime Malarkey, Luke Broadwater, Sara Michael and Mike Silvestri each performed under trying circumstances with professionalism and grace, and often beat our competitors who had much more resources.

I’d also like to thank my boss, Managing Editor Timothy W. Maier, for giving me autonomy and trusting me, and Editor Frank Keegan, who hired me.

In the community, I’d like to thank for their help Frank M. Conaway Sr., Del. Jill P. Carter, Marvin “Doc” Cheatham and the Rev. Daki Napata. We appreciated the professionalism and assistance of Bill Toohey, Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith’s spokesman; Marty Burns, spokeswoman for Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy; Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright; and GBMC spokesman Michael Schwartzberg. There are others to thank; you know who you are.

And most importantly, I want to thank you — the readers — for your support, encouragement, tips and feedback.

My biggest regret about The Examiner‘s demise is the many stories for which we won’t get to write the endings. The prostitute deaths that point to a serial killer; the death of Robert Clay (how can someone who was killed R.I.P., and why should he?); and the upcoming City Hall corruption trials are but a few of the intriguing tales that will go un-Examined.

Of the hundreds of stories I edited here, three sagas affected me the most. Janis wrote about the arrest of 7-year-old Gerard Mungo for sitting on his father’s dirt bike. As Gerard described his humiliation at being handcuffed and fingerprinted, I prayed this boy wouldn’t be scarred for life by the inhumanity of a few dark souls.

Malarkey’s coverage of the tragic death of a toddler who was dragged underneath a car in Baltimore County also stands out. The dignity of the tot’s parents as they were confronted with unfathomable horror touched me just as the aloofness of the driver puzzled me.

But it is the death of former Baltimore City Councilman Kenneth R. Harris Sr. that haunts me the most. He and I met shortly after the paper debuted. I was impressed by his sincerity, earnestness and humility. He was determined to make a difference and he wanted others to be just as outraged as he was about the police department’s zero-tolerance arrest policy and the pointless genocide in the streets. I was horrified by the senselessness of his death and the bitter irony that he was silenced by the very violence that so riled him. I hope that his killers will be brought to justice and that his family will find peace.

I also hope the killings that plague my hometown just stop. Am I being idealistic? Probably. But most journalists are.

Regina Holmes, an assistant managing editor at The Examiner, lives in Baltimore and intends to stick around for awhile.