What if the purpose of journalism were to go beyond facts?

A piece of writing advice that never gets old showed up in a recent post from Roy Peter Clark, writing guru: "The bigger, the smaller: The consequences of something huge, such as an epidemic, can be illuminated in part through a microcosm of a single well-chosen person or family."

It's a variation on the Ernie Pyle advice I often share about reporting: "If you want to tell the story of a war, tell the story of one soldier."

No matter how often or forcefully I urge my college writers to take this philosophy to heart in their own writing, particularly when they are writing memoir or specific descriptions, they struggle. They may start with some significant scene or moment in mind but they mostly cannot resist the urge to explicitly sum up or expand their scope to days, years, and even decades.

We get a lot of reporting lately on Ukraine and the Russian incursion there, but we don't get much reporting from "within" Ukraine. That likely accounts for the current mood that boils down to, "Eh, who cares? I don't know Ukrainians and am not certain where it is on the map. They aren't Americans, after all, and that whole old USSR empire seems so darn foreign.

Um, sure.

There will eventually be reporting on specific Ukrainian people and families, with a general goal of showing the universal face of suffering and fear and hope (maybe hope dashed). I would also guess that it will all be too late.

Getting to see and hear people very far from us and realizing that humans are not so very different from one another despite being dispersed around the globe might provide a foundation of support that could make a difference. 

But Americans have quite quickly gotten over abandoning people in Afghanistan, despite over 20 years of so many spending time and money there, and claiming to want to better that country's conditions. Remember when everyone -- from all parties and points of view -- pounced on the president and the chaos withdrawing from Afghanistan? They were shocked and upset and determined to show their displeasure.

Oh, perhaps you don't remember all that clearly. After all, it was about six months ago. And there was this omicron surge. And there are books to be banned, teachers to be taunted, and children to fall into poverty. 

RPC was referring to AIDS when he mentioned an "epidemic." Who spends much time worrying about AIDS these days? Old news. 

There are lots of facts to be shared and analyzed. There are lots of public statements by very important people. There are oddities to be explored.

But the heart of good journalism -- good writing generally -- has to be in telling stories of real people navigating crises and daily challenges, in loving and hating and struggling. 

I wonder what might happen if we could all get to know and even care for a single Ukrainian, a single Afghan, or a single child in poverty.