I believe too

This post is written in the spirit of NPR's column over the radio "This I Believe." It was inspired by the writings of Karl and Alissa. Rock on.

It's hard for me to know how much of this I will believe as I grow older, grow in experience and grow in relationships with the people I know and the people I've met and the people I will meet.

I don't know what will be subtracted, added or untouched on this list as I travel the road of life.

But I do believe.

I believe that each and every one of us, every last person on the face of this blue-green ball called Earth has a story.

I believe that every story is important and should be told.

I believe every story should be listened to, and that a story unheard or unbelieved is a great loss to human kind.

I believe that as a journalist, I'm blessed and charged with the important duty of storyteller. I'm the old man of the tribe who will tell you of your past, of the now and of that-which-has-yet-to-come.

I believe that whether you tell your story on paper, in speech or on a keyboard, it retains its value, its lustrous importance and gleaming value. No one can take it away from you. Not governments, not thieves, not the evil men who in their tyranny would use fear as a weapon to try and stop up the voice of the one who says "This is my story."

I believe it is my duty and everyone's duty to stand up in defense of the persecuted storyteller. I believe that as one, I am strong and as many, we are stronger and we will rise up, indomitable and unstoppable and just. When my fellow person, male or female, cannot tell their story, I will tell it for them. I believe they will be heard.

I believe in the power of truth, and that truth is the brightest of all lights.

I believe in God. I have stood on death's doorstep and known then and there that whether I believed it or not, God made me and that he truly does care for me. It is this belief that allows me to make it through the darkest of times when believing is a rare commodity at the store of my ability. I believe that God is my friend, and I call him Jehovah.

I believe that my friends will share the good times with me, and I believe they will get me through the bad times, and that I could be nothing greater than the sum of the people whom I hold dear to me and the family that nurtured me.

I believe that every person, with the words of their lips, the works of their hands and the strides of their feet has the potential to do good, and that because of that I should look for that good in all of them. I believe also that I should always bring out the best in myself for others to see.

I believe in me.

I believe in you.

And I believe that by helping each other out as best we can, we'll make it through.

This is my story, and in its truth, I do believe.