So another year has passed. So what do we know? Actually, who do we know?
One thing I think we know for certain is that the title of “Newsmaker”, especially newsmaker of the year may not be the title you might be striving for or want bestowed upon you, at least not anymore.
So for fun I searched for the newsmaker of the year 2013 from various media sources to see who these individuals were. Aside from a few obvious poor choices I was surprised to not see these types of people listed below. Unfortunately I couldn’t name them all as this list is quite long and ever growing;
Emergency Management Offices staff – for their tireless and thankless efforts and decisions in getting many communities around the world through some of the worst of the worst this planet can throw at us and some of the worst of the worst mistakes man may have caused.
Citizen Responder – for stepping up and helping because it was the right thing to do. For putting yourself on the line for a complete stranger and potentially giving up everything.
Emergency Service Responders – do I need to explain this one. For standing in harms way to protect us, for patching and repairing us when we’re broken and for some reason going into a burning building when the rest of us are getting out.
Our military service personnel – long list of newsmakers there.
Our Public Works employees battling on the front lines of mother nature so that we can have power, to eat, to stay warm, to watch video clips of them on the news battling the storm.
Emergency Preparedness Planners, Designers, Writers, Responders – those individuals in the private sector striving to come up with the best prepared plans, procedures and sometimes on the fly “Hail Mary pass” executions to make it safe for us to get out when we need to get out.
The security staff protecting millions and millions of dollars in assets daily and nightly while maybe the storm or flooding or fires rage on and you didn’t have to go to work.
My list could go on. These are a portion of a list of the newsmakers of the year in my books. I appreciate that many of those media generated lists are filled with great leaders that have done great things for all of us and my list of suggestions is to not diminish their achievements in anyway as I applaud them and thank them also for their contributions.
The real point of this article is for us to sit back and reflect on what it really should mean to be a newsmaker and although we may never be able to publicly acknowledge each and every individual for their unselfish acts and actions (as many didn’t go into looking for thanks anyways), do we really need to put a bigger spotlight on those that may not exactly deserve it.
Let’s make 2014 a year to thank the real newsmakers.
Plan the Work. Work the Plan.