Monthly Archives: October 2009

What Next, Print?

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We all know that journalism is taking a huge hit in the Internet Age. Quality, in-depth reporting is dying, being replaced by blogging, rumor, innuendo and unchecked sources.


A great example is a story from the L.A. Times. It’s titled “Sex Scandals that Rocked Hollywood” and talks about a collection of illicit deeds that (nearly) ruined careers.


Once you look at the article, you see that it’s nothing more than a “top ten” style post that so many sites churn out to keep the content of the day up, even if they don’t have anything to post. I used to do them on this very site (and still do occasionally).

Of course, I suspect these things were born from the print media. Does anyone doubt that “10 Best X of X” lists that show up every December are the product of someone wanting to spend as little time in the office as possible before they go home to their families? Reusing information is great, and it can add depth to a story. That’s why these lists are so successful. (Although I can’t help but wish that you could actually still use them to pick a movie to see at the theater during the Christmas-New Year break.)

The question is, though, mired in the middle of the worst economic crisis of most of our lifetimes, while so much has changed even in the Hollywood offices, is this the best way to use your column inches? In the piece’s defense, maybe it was a sidebar. You lose that perspective when items from the day’s paper migrate online. I could see this article tucked next to an in depth look at the ongoing Letterman scandal. A quick search on their website reveals nothing from the same time period, though.

Print journalism doesn’t need to demean itself by pretending to be a blog. It has cache already. We turn to them daily whether their ad sales let them know it or not. I honestly even like the L.A. Times and their themed blogs, and if this post had been inside one of those blogs, I wouldn’t have written this post.


Life, the Universe and Everything

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So here I am about a month from completing my Peace Corps service. I realized today that leaving the United States to come here was a lot easier than leaving here to go home will be.

A lot of volunteers wonder if they had any kind of impact on their communities. I am fortunate enough to know that I have. My counterpart and I have learned so much from each other. To quote him, “It’s unbelievable!” Honestly, the quality of counterpart you have combined with your schools director is about 75% of your struggle. I have been allowed to try things and to experiment here. My counterpart and I cooperate during our lessons. We have a true and rewarding partnership.

Our students are…students. Somedays they are ready to learn. Other days they would rather go fly a kite. It happens, though. I think back to high school Spanish for me. I understand every bit how they feel. We still try to reach them, though. This week was a good one just because cell phones were hardly a problem at all. You learn to take the small victories.

My friends from my English Club might be my best legacy here. Sasha, Julia, Alie, Helen and Andrew…I have to say I am a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to get everyone together this semester, but everyone is spread out. Everyone is working still with too little time for Saturday English lessons. They are all young people. They all have a lot of potential to do great things here. Hopefully they can reach their goals.


Healthcare

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I have been busy and out of the blogging circle for a little while. While I am still busy wrapping up my Peace Corps service, it’s worth pausing to talk about why national healthcare is a good idea.

Have you ever seen a sick kid? Have you ever been hungry, but couldn’t buy food? Have you ever had to choose between feeding your child or trying to cure his/her illness?

Have you ever needed a surgery? Have you ever needed a double mastectomy because a highly aggressive cancer was growing in your breasts only to be called the Friday before your surgery that you didn’t report you had acne, so your claim has to be denied?

Have you ever seen a premature baby that needed to spend weeks in a neonatal ICU? Have you ever had to wonder how exactly you will survive for the next five, ten or twenty years paying off that debt while trying to provide a decent life for those you care about?

Have you ever lost your job? Have you ever had to swap from having decent enough insurance that cost you about $200 a month to a $500 a month policy while you are living off less than $300 a week on unemployment? Have you ever had to settle on a plan that essentially only covers you going to the dentist for a period of time while you hope you get another job and can afford something better that will actually take care of you in case of an illness or accident?

Now imagine for any of these things that you have a family. Instead of one or two people to take care of, try three or four.

People are absolutely right that healthcare isn’t a right. But if hoping anyone who is sick can go to the doctor is wrong, what are you actually hoping for? To frame it like the abortion debate, you must certainly be arguing that every sick person must need to die. Prolife people want everyone to have healthcare and prodeath people want folks to suffer as they whither and die. Taking it a bit further, there are people in our country that believe a woman MUST bring a fetus to term if she gets pregnant and that the baby MUST die if she can’t afford a doctor.

That’s certainly a valid opinion. It’s also very cost effective, especially if you euthanize the sick people as soon as they show symptoms. Those people that want to compare Obama to Hitler would be mindful to remember that this is where their argument leads while Obama is against killing sick people.

I still want to believe that the United States is the best country in the world, but if countries like Canada, Germany and even France can provide healthcare for their citizens, why can’t we? In my head, I think that every country should try to do better by its citizens and keeping them healthy is about as noble a goal as education…maybe even more so because how can you learn if you are sick?

In my mind, it’s pretty simple. You are either in favor of people being able to see a doctor or you are in favor of them dying. People really need to think about what that breakdown means for them morally and spiritually.


Repurposing a Facebook Comment

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When whole families have been killed in car wrecks, I have been there next to the quilts covering the bodies. When little girls have been mauled by dogs because they got too close, I have been there. When taps plays and a two year old walks and puts the first flower on his mom’s casket, I have been there. When corrupt leaders are running for the side exit to avoid the TV crews, I have been there. When moms have their kids pooping in buckets and throwing it out the back door, I have been there. When bullets tore through classrooms, I have been there. When lunatics shot cops in the head, I have been there. When nature has destroyed towns, cities and lives, I have been there. When all these things happened, I was there so you didn’t have to be…. Read More

I have seen so many things that I wish didn’t exist in our world. It makes me physically ill to think about the circumstances in which these things can happen. But they remind me that I have been blessed, too.

Too many people have to deal with too many things they shouldn’t have to. People today, for whatever reason, are all about hate. Rich, fat men spew it from the radio. Other rich men spew it from the television. Some rich men even spew it from the pulpit. It wasn’t that long ago that all the people in our country came together to make it better… Read More through hard work, compromise and working together. For whatever reason today, it’s better to be a roadblock instead of a party to cooperation. I hope that one day soon people will remember that working together makes our country strong.

This summer while in Poland, I went to Auschwitz. To compare pretty much anyone to Hitler is to immediately let people know that you don’t really understand history. You are talking about someone who rounded up minorities, nationalists, homosexuals, intellectuals, Jews, Roma, etc and gassed them. These people were told they were being given the chance to shower after days on a train being relocated from their homes. While no water was run to the buildings, they had fake shower heads. They gave everyone a towel and a bar of soap. They killed kids. Before they killed people. though, they experimented on them. They tried to unlock the secrets of twins by doing one battery of tests on one kid and a different set on the other to see how they coped with them. There are a series of 20 plaques, one for each language spoken by those who died there. A place like that really brings the power of hate into focus and reminds you why love is so important.

I have always been a proud Mississippian. I tout the state’s accomplishments where ever I go. I’ve even been complimented on my ability to read by Yankees (even though I graduated from Union Academy)! I always tell people that Mississippians are not small minded like movies portray us. I tell them that we are the hospitality state standing with open arms for whomever wants to visit. Heck, I am even bringing a Ukrainian pensioneer to visit my family for a month when I come home. Some of you guys make me wonder what she will see when we get there. Just remember, though, that it will be the inverse of the last two years of my life. Instead of me representing all of America for the Ukrainians, you will represent all of America for her. Are you up to the task?

–On a Facebook comment thread talking about Barack Obama and his Nobel Peace Prize win, people were talking about a plantation mentality…about how some people don’t want to work and want everything handed to them, and how Obama was one of these people. They also bemoaned Obama’s efforts on healthcare. The conclusion was that the only thing he was fit to lead was a Missionary Baptist church. Another compared him to Hitler because Germany had national health coverage and state-owned car companies. This was my response.