MY MORNING STARTED WITH A REALITY CHECK

My Wednesday morning last week started out as usual. I woke, got ready for
work and drove my daughter to day care. It was on the way to the day care
that I received a reality check.

My car was idled at the traffic light at Bethsaida Road in Boaz as I waited
to cross U.S. Highway 431. My eye caught the sight of sirens flashing and
police tape roping off a large section of a yard up ahead.

As I drove on to my daughter's day care, I saw the remains of a house after
a fire had destroyed it. Later, I learned the fire was a result of a meth
lab, which exploded in the early morning hours of Wednesday morning. One
life was claimed in that explosion.

Being the reporter I am, I stopped at the crime scene Wednesday morning to
find out as much as I could. All I could think of was if the explosion had
happened much later, my daughter would have been at her day care not too
far away.

As I was leaving the crime scene, a woman approached wanting to know if it
was her father's home that had burned. Though I assured her it wasn't,
seeing what had happened prompted her to check on her father anyway, which
I certainly would have done had I been in her shoes.

The week progressed, and I talked with and heard about more people who knew
someone or had a loved one within the vicinity of the explosion. All of
them shared the same concern as I did - what if my loved one had been
caught up in that fire?

The loved ones of Stephen Noel, the man who died in the fire, are actually
living with that fear turned reality.

I voiced my concern to Marshall County District Attorney Steven Marshall at
the crime scene. He simply shook his head, and with a grave look on his
face, said, "That's what we've been preaching."

I knew what he was talking about. After he took office, Marshall headed up
an effort to hold a series of town meetings to educate the public on the
growing meth epidemic. I attended more than one of those meetings and was
enlightened at how serious the problem was and how many people, from all
walks of life, were affected.

It saddened me to see the extent some people would go because of the drug,
but until Wednesday, the reality that I or my family could have been
directly affected had never sunk in.

Then I have to hear some people complain that the newspaper is full of bad
news and how they want to read about something besides meth. My response is
those people need to grow up.

That may seem to be a harsh response, but the fact is the problem is not
going away. The news media has an obligation to report on things impacting
the community, and if meth is not at the top of that list, I don't know
what is.

As I've said before, it is no longer just a law enforcement problem. It's
the community's problem, and I hope it doesn't take another explosion in a
normally quiet residential neighborhood before people will get their
reality check.