As followers of this blog know, I enjoyed a modestly successful career as a print journalist, which I pursued with great joy and dedication.

Never once during my nearly 37 years on the job did I ever consider myself anyone’s “enemy.” Certainly not the readers I served while working for newspapers in Oregon and Texas.

The climate today is vastly different than the one I entered in the 1970s. I came out of college intent on changing the world, a la journalists who had done their parts toward that end. I didn’t want to change it to fit my own description of what the world should resemble.

My intent was to report on issues I saw developing and seek remedies to bring changes to flaws I recognized and identified. I don’t believe that’s a nefarious motive.

I just watched a 90-minute documentary on Dan Rather, the former TV news anchor who, in his words, always sought the truth and tried to tell it the best he could. One of the principals quoted in the Netflix piece alluded to the natural tension between government and those who report on it via the media.

The tension was natural, and it was precisely as the nation’s founders intended. Media representatives are assigned the task of rooting out wrongdoing, of reporting on what government is doing well, of telling the human stories that affect every community … and of offering commentary that provides leadership and guidance to a community that seeks it.

I want to take a moment to express my pride in the craft I still pursue and of those who are pursuing full time to this very day. They are facing some ferocious headwinds from those who seek to run our government and therefore set policy on our behalf.

Those of us who know about those forces resisting our best efforts understand fully the need for journalists to keep moving forward. Are we perfect? Do we get it right every single time?

Hell no! We are human beings! We do, though, answer to what I believe is a high calling.