VOL. 17 NO. 7 -- APRIL 4, 2022

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REFLECTIONS/Jonathan Gramling

Jonathan Gramling

Apology and Remembrance

We all have those moments in life when we are smacked in the face by reality and are reminded about our own humanity and imperfection.

When I write, I try really hard to express the truth about people’s lives and to express their lives from their point of view. There is enormous power in the written word for thousands of people to see, even in a small publication like The Capital City Hues. It can impact people’s lives in small and big ways. That is why it is so important for journalists to be committed to the truth — things that exist outside of the journalists immediate experience — above all else. It’s a belief that the world is larger than us and we need to accurately express it beyond the course of our everyday lives.

And so I must apologize to Dr. Freida High Tesfagiorgis for an error that I made in my three-part story about her. It is rare that I write a three-part story about any one individual, but Freida had so many fascinating things to say and her life has reflected, in many ways, the Black experience of people moving to the northern cities from down South to get the manufacturing jobs that offered a higher standard of living. I portrayed Freida’s family as the working poor who lived in a project. That was incorrect. -- READ MORE