Innaguration and Rememberance

As today we welcome a new dawn, the sun rising on the proverbial new day's second coming. I felt it only right, to couple a speech from the new president with a poem from a great one. Be forewarned, it may break your happy heart, so read further with caution on such a momentous, joyful day.

My Childhood Home I See Again
-by Abraham Lincoln


My childhood's home I see again,
And sadden with the view;
And still, as memory crowds my brain,
There's pleasure in it too.

O Memory! thou midway world
'Twixt earth and paradise,
Where things decayed and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise,

And, freed from all that's earthly vile,
Seem hallowed, pure, and bright,
Like scenes in some enchanted isle
All bathed in liquid light.

As dusky mountains please the eye
When twilight chases day;
As bugle-tones that, passing by,
In distance die away;

As leaving some grand waterfall,
We, lingering, list its roar--
So memory will hallow all
We've known, but know no more.

Near twenty years have passed away
Since here I bid farewell
To woods and fields, and scenes of play,
And playmates loved so well.

Where many were, but few remain
Of old familiar things;
But seeing them, to mind again
The lost and absent brings.

The friends I left that parting day,
How changed, as time has sped!
Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray,
And half of all are dead.

I hear the loved survivors tell
How nought from death could save,
Till every sound appears a knell,
And every spot a grave.

I range the fields with pensive tread,
And pace the hollow rooms,
And feel (companion of the dead)
I'm living in the tombs.

The Tragedy of Written Word

I recently had a discussion with my father about one of our mutual interests in life. That which is the unique joy of reading printed word. My father, if you have ever met him, is what would be referred to in a past time as a learned man, a storyteller, a man of many, many, many, words. Quick to share with anyone in earshot, a story of some magnitude or microsignificance that he has found within his daily routine. I have never met a day where he has told me the same thing twice. Whether it be the bus stop, or at the neighborhood Barnes and Noble that we happened to be standing in.

And in our aforementioned discussion about the multitude of virtues of reading, he expressed a notion that I have thought of before: "Son, I feel sad sometimes, knowing there are so many books, and I have so little time left."

My first notion was to jump to the conclusion of fear, that dread emotion that I have dealt with all of my life in less than stellar ways. The fear that we lose everyone eventually, and the loss of a father is one of immeasurable greif. Especially MY father, a man who is my everyman, my salt of my earth, my hero. Everyday I worship more and more his prescence in my life and the love he unconditionally bestows upon me.

So I told him. "Dad, dont say things like that, you have lots of time left. Time to spend doing what you love, reading."

To this he shrugged, "it's okay, I know the reality of things."

In that moment it seems if I was granted clarity, to remove myself with the wonder of my quick moving mind, I stepped back and realized something else about our exchange. That he was right. I have always thought about that notion, that with the relative length of the human life, vastly superior to thousands of animals in its length and depth. There will never be enough time to conquer all the words that I wish.

I had thought about this before, and I am sure that in my poor knowledge of literature there has been an author to address this very notion. Perhaps many authors. That I have often found myself in libraries and book stores, floating through the ailes on a sense of psychic magnetism, perusing the many options hoping one would catch my eye, and have been hit with the familiar gut twist that accompanies sadness and heartache. That debilitating feeling coupled with such a harsh realization: That I will never learn as much as I want to, that here in this wonderful, heartbreaking, beautiful love of mine I will never conquer her.

More to come...

Ode to Under the Influence

-Charles Blaine

What dreams do damaged ones embrace?
Wretched insides hidden behind one's face.

What hardships must they often endure?
All the while keeping their love's flame pure.

A ghost of grain and barley leers confines of space,
Haunts those who've long felt no escape.

Twere memories sweet of times oft forgotten,
Twere sweet as fruit but with time have rotten.

Beguiled by lies and sweet deceit,
Their once good hopes, do long retreat.

Quaking queerily in the night,
They try no more, tis no more fight.

That flame of love now is put out,
Quiet lingers, the dead move about.

Where once dwelt purity all has died,
Oh woe extended suicide!

Life Change Is Hard

What does it take to change your life?

That is the question that I have now. The reality of my situation is that to have what I really, ultimately want I have to do one of the hardest things that anyone can do and something incredibly hard for me to do. Change the way I am. Not for anyone else, but for myself. An action so hard that I am petrified of it, I am so scared to change, but infinitely more scared not to, because of what will come of it. I need to be something different, and I know this, but I cannot, not yet. I am being crippled by my fear again, once again fear is taking away from me what I want the most. Which is my everything, my life, my reason for living, my sunshine.

Coupled with that fear is my brain and its tendencies of nostalgia. Of times when this change was not what was needed, when this change was the farthest thing from my mind. When I was able to be that fear crippled soul, because others could not see past my veil, into my cowardly soul. Nostalgia is change and fear's cold breath, stinging my heart with its icy chill. Change requires living in the future, but nostalgia calls to the easy past. Where things were always better, and fun and happy, and the hard times are all but forgotten, eclipsed by the wonderful love and exhilaration, the purity of feeling.

I want change so badly, and I do have one ally. Hope, hope springs eternal, but it is fragile. Easily crushed by the behemoth of fear. One must nuture it, and protect it, for it is all that can save one from the depth of the past.

Tracking the New York Times

Evaluating the newspaper for one week definitely allowed me to see beyond the information provided to the background for lack of a better term “bias” that is presented on an almost daily basis in various different news subjects. I chose the New York Times website ny times.com to evaluate, with predetermined criteria of four different subjects which were the business, sports, arts, and front page (national and international news.) Over the course of a week I evaluated five articles from each front page and tracked in each category the mention of sex, race, titles, and sources that were mentioned. The mention of sex was with respect to the number of men quoted to the number of women. The race included the same criteria as sex. Titles were an evaluation of which people the quoted information came from and their standing within society. Finally, sources were the specific sources of information and who exactly was being quoted in relation to the issue of the story.

I began with the business section and the sex issue. Most stories I reviewed consisted of financial world and national news and business activities. My findings were that men were quoted at almost a three to one ratio to women. The characteristics of the men quoted were that they were exclusively white males ranging in age from 35 and up. Most women quoted were either low level employees of a company or small business owners. One example was a woman who started her own small delivery business and the article noted she was a mother specifically, and was one of the few African Americans I found in the section. The majority of sources were the white males in the aforementioned age group and their job titles were explicitly both defined and specific. For example, two men who were quoted were an attorney for the US Attorney’s Office of Baltimore and a Laureate Economist.

The sports section produced varying results from the business section. With regards to sex this section was dominated by men. I found few articles about women and most were not exclusively devoted to women athletes. Of the few articles I found about women they were either semi-popular sports (urban freestyle-parkour) or related to track and field. The titles of the sources were displayed differently in the articles. Most white athletes interviewed were written by name only and their position was implied by the reader. Athletes of other races were quoted as their position and name, which many who were interviewed were running backs, wide receivers, or tackles in football; and pitchers in baseball. The sources were at a two to one ratio between coaches and players. With coaches/mangers being quoted as the most frequent source. In college football articles almost all of the sources were coaches only and no players were quoted.

The arts section displayed the most equal article subjects in accordance to the criteria. Sex was mentioned from a perspective of the artistic subject of the article. Meaning it noted sex only when it was important to the reviewed/evaluated artistic piece. The titles of people mentioned were also more equal as women received articles dedicated to them only. For example one article I reviewed was a discussion of a high position senior museum coordinator in New York. Race was mentioned with regard to the artistic piece and not with regard to the source. Most of the articles were written as an insider perspective of readers who were accustomed to dealing with arts and theater prevalent in New York City.

The final section was the front page articles provided on the website. The issue of sex was explicitly mentioned in the articles with specific mention to which the person cited was and their background to the issue. Many of the sources were higher up and important ranked individuals to the issue that was being discussed. There were not as many sources from the public opinion of the issue. This section had the highest mentions of race with regard to the people mentioned in the articles. It was almost always mentioned in the article, and nationality was always made a point to be mentioned within context. The titles of the sources were much more formal and rigid than in other stories as well.

I think this assignment was an interesting one with regard to finding bias in a place where equality and “truth” is regarded as the norm and the expected. It is poignant to note that bias exists within credible and evaluated news sources even on a subconscious level. Fair and accurate reporting has become quite the daunting endeavor in a society of such diverse and varying subject material, and I think as a journalism student it is important to be able to know what to evaluate even in sources one would trust normally.

If you understand this I probably like you

Dylan Thomas-

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-One of the best things I have ever read and a piece of literature I will never forget. To quote Forrest Gump "That's all I have to say about that."

Ethical Issues and Me

Our assignment this week was to find two articles online that we think deal with an ethical issue and to not only define what it is but to also illustrate what we would do in this certain situation being a journalist. The first article that I found was from cnn.com (http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/08/ftl.mccain.health/index.html) and is titled "McCain faces questions on age, health." The article basically discusses McCain's obvious age and health issues with concern to his possible election to the presidency. It touches on his age, (being 72- which would make him the oldest person elected to the presidency) and also his past health problems including his four skin cancer removal surgeries. However, it also discusses Obama's lack of disclosure as a "double standard" whereby Obama only released one page of health history. Also, the article notes that McCain only allowed 3 hours for journalists to review his history and no one was allowed to photocopy any documents or take pictures.

I think the writing of this article is an interesting ethical standpoint. It could prove to be damaging to the campaign of McCain given the nature of the problem, that being his age. The author of the article definitely brings up the question of how serious the situation could potentially become even though McCain seems cognitively and physically fit now. As I read the article I definitely began to think more about the situation and if there is a possibility that he would intentionally not disclose some other details. And because he released the past history does not mean he has not been to the doctor recently. Also the issue of skin cancer is a particularly sobering one. This is not a condition to be thought of lightly, especially four times.

So let us continue to The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/us/politics/07fox.html?bl&ex=1223611200&en=6c2c0d7539595be6&ei=5087%0A) and the article "Obama's Personal Ties Are Subject of Program on Fox News Channel." This article discusses a recently aired hour long program by conservative Fox News anchor Sean Hannity aimed at criticising Obama's presidential campaign. Basically it discusses the accusations aimed at Obama from a biased slant. Called "Obama and Friends: The History of Radicalism" guests like Andy Martin a conservative writer who described Obama's work as a community organizer as "training for a radical overthrow of government."

I think this issue is also an important ethical issue from another perspective. That this article should have been written and displays good ethical conduct on behalf of the author. Biased opinions on what is a news network are not an uncommon occurrence, however this article helps to find a medium between both views of the issue of Obama's campaign. I thought that the accusations were interesting, not necessarily damaging, but it also helps to display some of conservative opinions to liberals who wouldnt necessarily watch Fox News.