I don’t know how many people read bylines. Generally, the person who wrote a news story is less noteworthy than the content of the story itself and so it’s easy to skip over the names of the men and women who bring us the news every day.
And, to be honest, this is the way we want it—we do not like being the story and while we are in the public eye we try to stay in the background as much as possible.
But this past week has been different.
Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Harvey was the big news story—and will continue to be the big news story. This was different than most stories in that it is a story that has affected everyone, including the men and women of our staff. Heck, as most of you know by now, even our building was a causality of the storm.
But our building and the losses of a company are nothing compared with the losses of people. The losses of our staff are not mine to tell, but suffice it to say, each person lost something. Some of them lost almost everything.
And yet, despite those losses and despite whatever fear, anger, frustration or heartache they faced, they did not skip a beat. As the devastating waters spread, our work continued and our readers (and the world) were kept up to date on the situation in Port Arthur.
The bylines bear this out.
Most people in this business are motivated by a natural curiosity. I call what I do being a professional snoop. But, then, there is also a desire to improve our community, whether it is by covering school board meetings or by holding accountable our public servants. Aside from those routine tasks, every so often we are faced with a common tragedy, such as when floodwaters inundate our city. At such times, we help by allowing those who are suffering to have a voice and we help by pointing to resources, aid and materials. We help by bearing witness because, when the national and statewide media have gone, we will remain.
We know that recovery from Harvey will be long and arduous. We know our community may never be the same and there is always hope for a better, stronger community.
But, no matter what the months and the years hold for our community I am proud to work among people who love the community and who will be here, day or night in fair or foul weather to tell the stories of our community. We saw, over the past week, the goodness and kindness of thousands of people in this community who rescued people, who helped their neighbors and who did more than anyone would have ever rightly expected. These folks make our community great and I’m proud to count them among my neighbors. The folks here at the News, though, they make my job great and I am proud to come to work every day—no matter the weather—and sit beside them.
Thanks, everyone.

Jesse Wright is the editor of the Port Arthur News. Contact him at jesse.wright@panews.com