On June 28th, 2018, the newsroom of the Annapolis Gazette, a small local newspaper located in the state capital of Maryland, was a busy place.  Lots of people reported for their normal duty, covering the local news scene.

There was nothing normal about that day in Annapolis.  A gunman, unhappy about some of the stories the Gazette had published, walked into the newspaper office and starting firing.  When the shooting was over, five journalists had died, two were badly injured.

The names of the dead were: Rob Hiaasen, Wendi Winters, Gerald Fischman, John McNamara and Rebecca Smith.  For those that survived the attack, they all went back to work and the paper did not miss an edition.  Volunteers from newspapers in the area pitched in to help the Gazette.

It is a reminder that journalism can be a dangerous profession.  We in America often think of reporters working in dangerous places outside the United States but we can no longer rule out the danger of doing journalism here at home.

I have been a volunteer journalist in Fishers for seven and a half years.  No one has threatened me during that time.  But I did make my living in journalism for about ten years, during the 1970s and early 1980s.  There were times threats were made.  That never changed the way I went about doing my work, but I did take a few precautions as a result.

David Dreier is chairman of Tribune Publishing.  (Tribune owns the Annapolis Gazette)  He is also heading up an effort to create a memorial for journalists that lost their lives just doing their jobs as journalists.  The proposal is to place the memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC.

Getting that done is a long process and can take 5-7 years.  Mr. Dreier is not asking for any government money to fund this memorial.  He is raising money from private sources only.

The process is just beginning.  I hope everyone reading this story will support this effort.  Not everyone can afford to make a financial contribution (if you do, that is fine).  The most important thing is to support the idea that this memorial is important.  I would hope this memorial will receive the support needed to make it a reality as the process begins.

To learn more about the memorial project, use this link.