9NEWS (Denver): We are not your enemy.

These are tough times when it comes to how journalists cover the news and more importantly, the assumptions you have about how and why we cover the news.

It’s important that you understand at least this much: Whatever we are, we are not your enemy.

I grew up in a very humble but happy family in rural northern Missouri in the 1960s and 1970s. This was an especially tumultuous time in American history that many people today have forgotten or don’t understand.

But the chaos that resulted from political assassinations and violent confrontations between the anti-Vietnam War movement and the rest of the country did not find its way to me.

As I’ve grown older I’ve come to appreciate what a gift it was to grow up not surrounded by fear or violence. Millions, maybe billions of people don’t get that opportunity.

I am not a radical activist in favor of any ideology, liberal or conservative.

I’m the youngest of eight children, the son of a rural letter carrier and part time farmer who remains the best man I’ve ever known. My mother set an example for us all of the power of unconditional love.

I’m proud to be an American, not just because it’s the country where I was born and raised, and where my family has lived for 173 years, but also because the American idea is the best idea human beings have ever had.

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