'The news makes me want to stay in and hide - it's important we don't'
04.11.2023 - 06:25
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Halloween might be over - but it doesn't feel like it.
I know this is supposed to be the M.E.N's easy slide into the weekend, but just to address the elephant in the room, the news is completely overwhelming. The Israel-Hamas War, the shocking revelations coming out of the Covid-19 inquiry, even the stormy weather feels like a pathetic fallacy for the unrelenting terror that is always present at our fingertips, only a scroll away.
Working every day as the Manchester Evening News' health reporter, even while it's a job I hold so dearly, it puts me constantly in front of a website that is required - and absolutely needs - to be reflective of and report on the state of the things right now. And, like anyone else who has news notifications arriving on their screens, I have felt horrified and powerless in equal measure many times.
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I unfortunately have no answers for you still, as an eternal optimist, one constant I know for sure (and a crucial reason I find meaning in my job) is that we need to know about these stories. It's hard to stare so directly at them, but it's so important that the world engages and acts in the face of a vortex of problems - often created by ourselves.
I have taken heart in the bravery of the volunteers rushing to help save people in the unfolding Middle East conflict, the courage of reporters and residents alike getting the reality out to the rest of the globe in unfathomable circumstances, the fleeting displays of humanity reminding us that wars