Private people playing out a public phenomenon
I understand stigma. I do. Honest. We all have secrets we strive to keep, lest people judge us on our skeletons -- real or simply perceived -- alone.
In these distinctly excruciating times, the principle is magnified -- particularly for those of us who make a career of telling stories through the voices of the people in them.
The voices are still there, but these days they frequently have no real names or faces to go with them.
As you no doubt have noticed, The Sun has made a mission over the past year of conveying the worldwide economic malaise via its effect on the people who live in and around Naperville. That's what we do (and forgive my horn-blowing for a moment, but we do it pretty well: in case you missed it, our "Facing the economic crisis" series took first place among news story series when the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association handed out its annual awards last week).
Through the series and in many other stories, we have looked at the economy's ills from myriad angles, relating their impact on nearly everything from family life and college planning to the waning quantity of coins in the collection plate. This fiscal meltdown has brought no shortage of story possibilities, ways to put familiar faces on the stories that lead the evening news.
It has been perplexing, then, to run into trouble repeatedly when it's time to put names and visual images with those stories.
In telling of the harrowing experiences of homelessness, hunger and medical-expense crisis our residents have encountered in recent months, I have heard again and again that we must not print names and can't take pictures. It's just too shameful.
These fervent conditions of anonymity are based on fear that others will judge, and embarrassment and shame will certainly ensue.
Of course, we get that. These are horrendous circumstances, misfortunes that strain the seams of even the most well-adjusted and resourceful of families. But they're just that -- misfortunes. They by no means indicate human failings or even character flaws. They are horrible twists of fate that can, and do, happen to anyone -- in Naperville and everywhere else. There's no real shame in them. At least, there shouldn't be.
So when a story comes through that strikes a chord, a tale that resonates with its words, we are honored to know it has elicited that response. Please know that we'd like to give you something equally compelling to look at.
If only we could.
Contact Susan Frick Carlman at scarlman@scn1.com
