"The Rocky" shutting down

My friend Judy Longshaw, who works in the University Relations office at Winthrop, has called my attention to another sad day for print journalism in Colorado and the rest of the U.S.

One of Colorado's best daily newspapers (winner of four Pulitzer Prizes) is the Rocky Mountain News--affectionately known as "The Rocky."

"The Rocky" ceased to operate this week, with corporate heavyweights citing a failing economy and sharply declining ad revenues, among other things, as the culprits.

Denver, Colorado, still will have the broadsheet "Denver Post," but lots of people in Colorado loved the taboid "Rocky."

The pictures that accompanying this blog post help tell the story of the drama in the Rocky's newsroom earlier this week.

One curious note, brought to my attention by Paul Osmundson, editor of The (Rock Hill, S.C.) Herald: See that guy with the gray hair typing diligently as the newsroom folks are told by the newspaper's owners that they will no longer have a place to work?

And see him again, in that other photo--still at work at his desk?

Wonder if he's writing the paper's obituary?

By golly, the story has to get written, regardless of whether there's a paper to print it in!

One other note--not entirely unrelated: I ran into Terry Plumb last night. Plumb is the long-time editor (now retired) of The Herald in Rock Hill.

He informed me that Sunday (March 1) will be the last edition of The Herald printed on the press in Rock Hill. This is after about 150 years of printing our community's daily newspaper here. This was our press (I call it "our press" because it's been in Rock Hill so very long and has amazed so many people here--so many school groups, business owners, ordinary citizens and others who have toured The Herald over the years.) But alas (another sign of corporate or chain owned newspapers) our press will be disassembled, packed up and moved out of town. Meanwhile, The Herald will be printed on the big press in Charlotte--at the Charlotte Observer (sister paper, as of a few years ago, of The Herald).

A sad day for Rock Hill.

A sad day for Denver, Colorado.

A sad day for print journalism.

Censorship at Winthrop University

Mark Hamilton, a faculty colleague at Winthrop University, recently has been having a bit of friction with University Relations (the PR arm of Winthrop). Seems he thought his artwork images ought to be distributed by University Relations' enewsletter.

University Relations said it would distribute information about his artwork, but not the artwork itself. Their reasoning: some high school students (prospective Winthrop enrollees) get the enewsletter and Hamilton's artwork (which includes nudity) would be inappropriate for such a young, vulnerable audience.

Censorship of an artist's work or is this something else?

Here, in part, is what Hamilton recently said:

"This censorship by University Relations extends to not only written and or spoken word but to works of Art. This past year my wife and I had some works on display at an exhibition at USC in Columbia. I notified University Relations and they asked for details and images for University Publications. The work was submitted to University Relations and I was told that they would run a blurb but no images since the images contained nudity. It seems funny that USC would publish them in a beautiful 4-color brochure, my work has been published in over fifty international publications yet I am censored by my parent institution....."

Ok, here's my take.

If it walks like a censor and it quacks like a censor and it smells like a censor, I'd say, it's (well, you can finish the sentence...)

Long live collegiate artists like Hamilton who remind us of the preciousness and fragility our First Amendment freedoms.

The above accompanying photo, by the way, can be found at Jennifer and Mark Hamilton's Web site.

Quote of the week--from The Waffle House

Times are tough all over, but at The Waffle House in Rock Hill, you might be able to order more than just a plate of waffles.

That brings me to my quote of the week--from a story Saturday in The (Rock Hill) Herald by Toya Graham about marijuana sales at the Waffle House on Cherry Road in Rock Hill.

Here are a few graphs from Toya's piece:


….An anonymous caller tipped police that Stegall and Toomey were selling marijuana inside the Waffle House at 2553 Cherry Road, where Toomey was employed as a cook, said Marvin Brown, commander of York County Multijurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit.

"You can't just sit in a Waffle House and sell marijuana," Brown said. "I know the economy is bad. They're going to have to find some other way to make money."

Sunshine, warmth and golf in Rock Hill

If golf isn't the hardest game in the world, I don't know what is.

I tried playing today after a few months hiatus.

Didn't do very well, but I lOVE to try. (Had to get out in the sunshine and warmth and enjoy the great S.C. outdoors after the recent cold snap.)

I swing and sometimes I don't hit the ball. I cuss--sometimes even saying the "firetruck" word. I flail about and think to myself, "Why do I keep trying at this...?


Several times today, when I hit the ball, I pulled it way left, or I barely nicked it, driving the ball way right.

Not a great day today hitting the ball at the Winthrop golf course, but a satisfying one--with fresh air, invigorating scenery and friendly people. No high pressure stakes at this course--just weekend golfers out of a few hours of recreation.

This brings me to this thought: How does Tiger Woods do it so effortlessly and beautifully?

I watched him, in person, two years ago when he won the Wachovia Championship, pocketing $1 million-plus for that victory, in Charlotte.

The man is superman around and on the greens. And off the tees, he hits it a mile.

So he has all the tools, all the gifts.

What you maybe didn't know: Tiger hits hundreds of balls on the driving range--after he plays 18 holes. He puts in just as much practice with his putter and chipper.

The best never sit on their laurels.

Here's to Tiger Woods, the best at the hardest game in the world.

I'm in awe of the guy.

Realness

Here's a blurb I wrote a few years ago trying to encourage my mass communication students to get out of their comfort zones and talk to "real people."

(I frequently require them to interview at least one "real person"--defined as not someone who is a student--for their writing assignments. Do this to try to get students out of their comfort zones.)

On "realness":



I'm often asked (or maybe challenged is a better way to put it) by students in my mass communication classes what I mean by a "real person." I try to explain that (no offense meant) students are NOT really real.
 


In one sense, no one is ever entirely real. But if you're older, say at least 40 or 50 or 60, you likely are on your way to becoming real.
 


A real person, as I see it, is someone who has had his or her fair share of failure or disappointment in life, who has been beaten down or rejected but who has also risen back up and learned to overcome deep depression or the downsides of life. Part of being real sometimes involves having someone you love say they know longer care about you or don't want to be with you.

A real person knows, from personal experience, that life is full of disappointment and that sometimes, "failing forward" is the best he or she can do. 
 
A real person has been taken apart and has put himself or herself back together again and is stronger for having been through turmoil, rejection, defeat, depression or failure.
 A real person may have had his or heart out of rhythm and had to get it shocked back into rhythm (recent personal scary experience at Piedmont Medical Center). Or even scarier: had his chest cut open and two of his arteries snipped and bypassed so blood could course more easily through his body.

A real person is humble but strong, never haughty, and always trying to learn. A real person, always trying to be a good listener, knows probably only that he or she still has a lot to learn. A real person knows that the best things in life are free and that everyone on this planet has dignity, worth and something to offer.
 


Realness often happens very slowly--almost glacially.

I am reminded, when I talk about "real people" in my classes, of the classic children's book "The Velveteen Rabbit," by Margery Williams.
 


In that book, two stuffed animals, a Skin Horse and a Rabbit, converse with each other in a children's nursery. 
 
Old, bedraggled and on his last legs, The Skin Horse wore a patched, ragged brown coat, and children had pulled out most of the hairs in his tail, making them into string bead necklaces.
 


Rabbit: "What is REAL? Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
 


Skin Horse: "Real isn't how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."


Rabbit: "Does it hurt?"
 


Skin Horse: "Sometimes. . . When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."


Rabbit: "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, or bit by bit?" 


Skin Horse: "It doesn't happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very
shabby." 



Food for thought about being a Real person or on becoming a Real person. Good luck to all of you as you evolve into "realness."

YouTube video of yours truly

Been about eight months since I had my chest ripped open and went through the double-bypass.

Praise again to Dr. John Lucke, my heart surgeon at the Veterans Hospital in Asheville, N.C.

And thanks to all the nurses and other support staff who helped get me through that.

Reason I'm even mentioning this now is a couple of students at Winthrop University recently shot a video of me (as part of work they're doing for a broadcast class).

Topic: My heart surgery and my back surgery in 2008.

Click on the hotlink headline above to view the video. (Turn your sound up.)

Professors and what they believe in

We had an interesting discussion today in one of my classes about this: Should a college professor express his opinions or viewpoints (in class in front of his students) on controversial topics.

A controversial topic could be religion, abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, gay marriage, politics, elections...

Some of the students said their professors had informed them that it's best NOT for them (the professors) to take a public stand on such topics. Seems the reasoning goes something like this: If a professor states his/her views in class, that might unduly influence or shape the thinking of students.

Here's what I think.

Professors should profess.

If we can't and don't do that, why are we here? What's the point?

Why bother about anything if we ourselves don't speak up and out when we're asked to do that.

Here, for the record, are some of the things/people I believe in:

1. John McCain (voted for him mainly cause he's a decorated Vietnam war hero, almost died for this country, and he's a good, smart guy.) That said, I've got to say I like Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. I hope and pray they lead our country out of the current economic turmoil.

2. God. I'm a Christian, baptized (full immersion in water) as a sophomore in high school. I haven't been very good at going to church these last few decades, but I am trying to read the Bible. I chip away at it every so often--now on First Solomon in the Old Testament.

3. Dogs. They're a man's best friend. Faithful to the end as our best loyal companions, what's not to like about them?

4. Family. Without a strong, supportive family, we soon wither. But for my wife and my children and my parents and brother and sister, I wouldn't last long. God bless them all. I love them very much.

4. Extraterrestrials. Yes, that means I believe in UFOs. We just cannot be the only living beings in this entire universe. It's too big. Life HAS to be out there someplace else.

5. A free press. Make that a free, responsible press that shines a light on truth and wrongdoing and injustice (and on justice). Without a free press (and yes, it does get rambunctious at times and off point), I wouldn't be writing this, and you wouldn't be reading it.

Ok. Enough for now. These are some of my core professed beliefs.

What do you profess, ladies and gentlemen?

And if you haven't already taken my poll (in the upper right hand corner of my blog site), please do it.