Editor's note

No two reporters work exactly the same way. Some use notebooks, others tapes. Some have to deal with cameras. Axed depending upon whether you work for a daily, a weekly, a monthly or a 24-hour news channel, the deadline pressures we face in our profession run the gamut.

For all of us, however, there are some basic facts that get collected about every source. A name, spelled correctly, tops the list.

When you're writing about certain people, however, you are forced to question the importance of even this seemingly innocent piece of information.

It becomes important when you tell the story of the Pakistani man who appears in this month's cover story. He fled his country to come here because he was shot and threatened for his political activities, and because he lived in a place where he couldn't rely on public servants to help him.

It becomes important in describing the Cameroonian woman who was beaten--while she was eight months pregnant with twins--as she participated in a political meeting in her country. Earlier, her brother was killed by police in a protest. In her view, peacefully challenging her government to provide good roads, quality education and jobs were not unreasonable requests.

And it becomes important in relaying the circumstances that led a Croatian man to dodge the draft because of a regime that had a history of sending people it didn't like into war zones without ammunition.

Few of us who were born and raised in the United States can imagine the fear and desperation that lead people to make the decision to leave their homes behind forever to seek asylum on our shores.

This month, Reporter Sarah Karp does a very good job of depicting them. She does it partly by showing us how the system that serves these immigrants here fails, in many cases, to truly do them justice.

But the most compelling way she does it is by bringing you the voices of the people most affected. In most cases, you won't learn their names. That is not by accident. As she reported this story, Karp had to wrestle with a very real dilemma: Do we print names that have appeared in the public record, but that the people themselves have asked us to withhold, or do we do our best to minimize the harm that could come to them as a result of any increased visibility?

In the end, we decided that the latter was most important, though that decision was made on a case-by-case basis.

Some of their fears get communicated through the details of their lives, the threats, the violence they've experienced. But some of them get communicated through what you don't hear or see: The Pakistani man who has no chance to speak during a hearing that will largely decide his fate, and who is penalized for appearing "nervous" when he does.

For each example Karp highlights in her story, there are many more that she either couldn't put in print or couldn't get asylum seekers to share with her. (Even agencies that serve such immigrants were unable or unwilling to provide her with people to tell their stories.)

We at the Reporter decided it was not our place to pass judgment on someone's wish not to be named or quoted. But it presents quite a quandary for those of us committed to exploring the lives of one of our society's least-understood populations. How will we understand them better if we don't know who they are?

It challenges us to spend more time getting to know more different kinds of people than perhaps we have. To too many of us, the people whom Karp interviewed ferry us back and forth in taxis, teach our classes, or care for us in hospitals, often without us knowing much about the conditions they fled, much less their thoughts, hopes or dreams about their futures.

It challenges us to learn more about the people we already do know--or think we know. It challenges us to pay closer attention when we hear about the workings and dysfunctionality of the government institutions that primarily serve people who have come here more recently than the rest of us. It challenges us not to glaze over when we read or hear about the War on Terror or the policy changes that have ensued since it began. It challenges us to better understand our country's activities around the world, and how those actions affect real people.

Most importantly, however, those of us who are comfortable telling our own stories should probably spend more time listening to others'.

The opinions expressed by the editor and publisher are her own.

We welcome letters pertaining to our coverage. Send them to editor@chicagoreporter.com or 332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500, Chicago, Ill., 60604. Please include name, address and a daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for space and clarity.

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