“Where were you when...?”

It seems that every generation has a variation of that sentence. The end of that question normally mentions a significant moment in history.

A 64-year tradition unofficially begins today as the Mountain Home community comes together to showcase its support for the men and women of the armed forces.

Air Force Appreciation Day, or AFAD for short, is a celebration whose reputation extends well beyond Elmore County and even our state. In fact, a number of military members learn about it immediately after they get orders to Mountain Home Air Force Base.

“What is the purpose of a newspaper?”

It seemed like a very simple question to answer as I prepared for my first day of class along with my fellow students. All of us had been in the profession for at least a couple of years, and the program in advanced photojournalism seemed like it was going to be a cakewalk -- or so we thought.

I must admit I felt a bit anxious when I started work on this week’s edition of the Mountain Home News. With so many things that happened in town the previous week, I simply wondered if we would end up dealing with a slow news week in which I had to dig through various news resources to find something… anything… that felt newsworthy.

That’s when I received notification regarding an e-mail sent to my office from Robynn Schipani, the principal at Stephensen Elementary School. I was among the first in this community to learn the school became Idaho’s first Purple Star School. That title goes to schools whose teachers and staff members go the extra mile to help the students of military families make easier, more successful transitions when they move into our community as well as when their families prepare to leave here for their next duty assignment.

Hate still exists.

It’s a message that representatives with the Center for Human Rights in Boise stressed during a presentation I saw at the Anne Frank Memorial several years ago. It was one of many messages officials with this human rights’ organization stressed while my college friends and I took part in a program during one of our classes at Boise State University.

An age-old tradition begins Monday morning as thousands of children and teens in the Mountain Home area return to the classroom for their first day of the new academic year. This includes those in the Mountain Home School District as well as students taking classes in the Richard McKenna charter school district.

I would be remiss if I forgot to include the thousands of students returning to classes in the Glenns Ferry and Bruneau-Grand View school districts on Aug. 19.

Every day, my computer gets flooded with messages sent by various people and organizations across Idaho and our nation regarding a myriad of topics that potentially affect those of us in the Mountain Home community. While most of those messages end up in the digital trash can, some of them grab my attention quite unexpectedly.

The latest example happened last week when I received a message from one of the city councilman in Nampa. Granted, Nampa is nearly 60 miles away, but my eyes focused on what this person planned on doing.

Saturday, July 13, an assassination attempt was carried out, and President Trump was shot. All glory to God that he is alive and well after this incident. Sadly, one innocent bystander in the crowd died as a result, and others were critically wounded.

Hearing President Trump had been shot, I remembered when President Reagan was shot in March 1981. I remember exactly where and what I was doing: The entire country and the world stood still in horror that such an event had occurred.

I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened. I guess I was too much of an optimist on how fast it happened.

I refer to a news story involving a comment posted to social media shortly after the news broke regarding the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump. Simply put, officials with the Sioux Falls School District in South Dakota fired a behavior facilitator staff member at its middle school.

Those who know me best understand I tend to get a bit on edge around this time of year. I know it’s just a matter of time when I get the call — the one that has me dropping everything and scrambling out the door with my camera in hand.

It didn’t help when the police scanner next to my desk set off the single tone that startled me. Every time I hear it, I grab a pen and piece of paper and start jotting down what’s happening because that one, continuous tone means we have a possible fire. The question is where.