This has been a heartbreaking couple of weeks in Cherokee County. Two young boys have lost their lives, their mother charged with their murder. A young women is going to spend most of the next two decades behind bars for making and distributing child pornography. These are horrific crimes.
We knew law enforcement was investigating a potential homicide on March 2 when Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith posted this on his personal Facebook page:
“I love being the sheriff of Cherokee County, it is the honor of my life,” he wrote. “I will also say it’s the toughest job of my life. There is evil in this world, folks, please pray for our county.”
That’s when we first knew this wasn’t going to be an easy story to report. It never is when talking about death, but that’s especially so when children are involved. I don’t know a single journalist at any newspaper who wouldn’t have been moved by this tragedy – and struggled to leave those images behind when they went home.
Yet, that’s what officials with law enforcement agencies, fire and rescue departments, 911 emergency dispatch and Emergency Medical Services deal with on a regular basis. Their jobs are to clean up after humanity has done its very worst, and after last week’s sad events, it was easy to see how much this
incident impacted so many people. Thankfully, Smith is a proponent of mental health for law enforcement officers and made sure resources were available to those involved.
The reason the Cherokee Scout can include this under “On a Positive Note” is because these workers have dedicated themselves to facing things that would make the rest of us feel sick or run away. There is evil in this world, as Smith put it, but there are also brave men and women willing to meet it head-on. May God bless them all.
– Publisher David Brown