'Keeper of the Flame'

SYDNEY looked around the familiar lobby with its magnificent globe slowly rotating in the center. She loved it here. The photographs and famous front pages from the year 1881 to the present dazzled her. There were plaques with names of journalists who had given their lives in pursuit of the truth, and of course, the busts of the founders of the paper, the beautiful murals that depicted early California, and an old Linotype machine. (Invented in 1893, the Linotype was an old-fashioned way of printing the newspaper.) The Los Angeles Times has been in existence for more than 125 years.

She was only 10 years old, but she knew she wanted to be a journalist when she grew up. She was named after her journalist uncle who was giving her a last tour of the famous Globe Lobby. He was retiring and Sydney had helped him clean out his desk in the newsroom.

Uncle Syd looked kindly at his namesake and said, "Sure you want to be a journalist? It's a tough business."

"Are you trying to discourage me?" she asked.

"If you can be discouraged, you probably shouldn't be in this business."

"Don't worry, I can't be discouraged."

Uncle Syd laughed and said, "Why do you want to work at a newspaper?"

Little Syd thought long and hard about that one. Finally, she answered, "Words."

"Words?"

"Yes, I love words."

"Words can be used to hurt, deceive and evade," observed her uncle. "Can you tell me what those words mean?"

Sydney was just a little miffed at that. Of course she knew what those words meant! She pretended to think it over. "Well, I can see how words can hurt people. If the people are hurt because the words are a lie, then it is unjust. But sometimes people are hurt because the words are true. Of course, I wouldn't deliberately hurt anyone with the truth. But if it is important, it must be published."

"You're very strict," observed her uncle.

"You have to be when you're in the newspaper business. Now what was the next word? Deceive. That means to lie because there is something that you want. A newspaper should never do that."

"How about 'evade' "?

"It's kind of like lying. You don't tell an out-and-out lie, you just don't mention something that you want to hide. And words can manipulate too," added Little Syd.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Big Syd.

"Sometimes, writers don't want readers to know the truth, so they twist the truth. But that's not why I love words. I love words because they can do the opposite. They can make the world clearer and lead to justice. You told me a newspaper cannot print something as fact unless it can be proved."

Her uncle nodded and murmured, " 'Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.' Thomas Jefferson said that."

Little Syd had her own quote: " 'The newspaper is a greater treasure to the people than millions of uncounted gold. There is no dimming, no effacement here. Each new pulsation keeps the record clear.' "

"Where did you get that quote?" asked her uncle.

"I'm not quoting. I'm reading it. I think you better open your eyes." Little Sydney gestured upward with her head.

And there were the very same words she had just said emblazoned in gold, on the rim of the Globe Lobby. "Those words, 'keeps the record clear.' It means to print the truth. There's nothing more important than that."

"Thousands of people have passed through here and they never see that quote. I never saw it," stated her uncle with wonder. " 'To keep the record clear' -- that is a flame that burns inside every newsman. All right, little one, I pass the torch to you. You are the keeper of the flame."

Sydney answered solemnly, "I will keep it burning."

Her uncle took her hand in his and held it for a moment. He said, "See that you do."