Old reporter is new guy at the Times
I'm older than I was seven years ago.
There. That is probably the greatest wisdom you will get from me.
I left The Times seven years ago and pursued greener pastures. Although I have loved all my experience in journalism I can honestly say I am very excited/humbled/enthused to be back at The Brazil Times.
This is a great community newspaper and is owned by a great company.
Although I have no great insights to share, I think I am much humbler than I was 13 years ago when I first came to work for The Times. Life does that to you. When you are very young you think you have it all together and when you get older you forget where you put it.
Editor Pete Wilson asked me to write about myself.
A question that goes along with that assignment is, "Why did they hire an old guy like you?"
Well, my wife, Linda, and I have lived on Murphy Avenue since 2001. We moved in right after 9-11. In fact I was sitting in The Times newsroom and watched the TV when the second plane hit the World Trade Center. We threw out our plan for that day's paper and devoted the front page to the catastrophe that befell our nation.
In the next six years, reporters at The Times won several awards for news stories and were cited by The Associated Press for ongoing coverage of a hostage situation.
Linda and I have been married 36 years. She has followed me as we moved to various places in Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois when I was in the ministry and when I became a full-time journalist. We have two grown children and six grandchildren.
I have covered political news. One of my editors said on his last day at the paper where we worked, "We would never have gotten those government stories if you hadn't covered them."
I have covered lifestyle, education, agricultural and weather stories. I have produced content for websites, including text, photos and video. I did a weekly program called "Frankly Speaking," during which I interviewed local leaders.
But most importantly, I love Brazil.
The people here are wonderful. I was a member of the Brazil Rotary Club for several years and I look forward to joining that organization again. I want to be involved in the Brazil community. I was president of the Crawfordsville Rotary Club one year and tried to be active in that community when I worked there as well.
The Editor tells me I will be covering county government and some town government news. He said he likes for reporters to pitch story ideas so if you have something you want to read about in The Times, call me! If it's OK with the Editor, I'll get to work on it!
Finally, I wrote that The Times is a great newspaper. That's because The Times is your newspaper.
Frank Phillips' e-mail address is frank.phillips@gmail.com and his cell phone is (765) 918-8915 or you can leave a messaqe for him at The Times.
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