The top of the page headline screams, “African American Seniors Being Led to the Slaughter.”

Then in bright red ink, the major headline declares,”West Siders Being  Victimized as Attorney General Tries to Crack Down on Home Improvement Scammers.”

In extensive detail and pictures, the story goes on to talk about the elderly West Side residents who allegedly have been scammed into home repair and mortgage scams that reportedly have wrongly taken thousands of dollars out of their pockets.

The story on the front page of the Garfield-Lawndale Voice on March 3rd was full of people talking about the problem, talking about what needs to be done, talking about the state agencies that have helped them or as well, have not helped them. It was full of indignation and fury and a sense that this kind of scam shouldn’t happen in the neighborhood.

Just when I had given up hope that local newspapers would keep the issue alive along came this story and it quickly picked my optimism that this is what the ethnic news media is good at – defending the folks it talks for.

But I should come clean. My faith wasn’t really lacking. Nope, before I saw this article in the Voice, which has to get online soon, I had seen a story on March 8 in Hoy about  female immigrants. It had been planned ahead so that it would appear on the International Day for Women.

What made this story by Leticia Espinosa so good was that it mixed enough humanity with statistics to tell us about an issue that matters: how to make sure that that there is a way for female immigrants to find a place for themselves today. And one number from the report by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, struck me: 87 percent of the Latinas who are not U.S. citizens cannot speak English or know very little. The message: they want to serve their families and their community and they need help to do so.

Stephen