Terry Cowgill

Fixin’ To Change The World

And a curious column today by Helen Ubiñas in The Courant. In this season of commencement speeches, she provided some highlights of a talk she gave at a “social justice” camp in Colebrook. Can anyone tell me what a social justice camp is? But I digress …

One of the subjects Ubiñas had planned to talk about was “how exhilarating and rewarding it is to work in a field where you try and fix the things that need fixing.” Hmm … Is that what journalists are supposed to do? That sounds like government (or a handyman or the Courant’s Watchdog columnist George Gombossy).

I think this is one of the problems with journalism today. Too many young people enter the profession because they want to save the world. I have no firm figures to support this, but I have talked to dozens of journalists who say they just want to make the world a better place. I suspect this phenomenon explains why straight news reporting (especially on the national level) is often laced with idealogical baggage (left and right, but mostly left).

I became a journalist because I like to write, enjoy the news and get a charge out of giving people information they can use and in an accessible way. My coverage sometimes annoys public officials, but I have no desire to change the world or “fix things” by virtue of what I write (that is, unless I myself goof and need to write a correction!).

If I happen to uncover corruption and help put the cuffs on a crook, then great. But I’m not sure I agree with the old maxim that the job of a newspaper should be to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” The job is to get the story and if it comforts or afflicts then so be it.

Two Updates

Steven Chapman writes a take-no-prisoners column on Carter vs. Bush: Who’s Worse? Remember the post I did on that early last week? Well, I don’t have to tell you he writes much better than I do. Chapman’s conclusion? It’s a draw. Both were miserable failures.

And Froma Harrop of The Providence Journal reminds us why even though many of us may like the Clintons’ policies and abilities, we remained troubled by their bad judgment and sleazy friends.

Remaining Local Media Stronger Than Ever

It’s time for a local media update. A week or two before Thanksgiving 2004, while on my four-year stint away from the LJ, I wrote an op-ed piece for the paper on the status of the radio scene in the NWC.

[Aside: The link has expired, but I found the text on my computer and have placed it in a comment box on another post. Click here to read that column and see how it compares to what we have today.]

Since radio, Web and print media have evolved (and even, in some cases, converged), it only makes sense to update my readers on the media scene in general, rather than limit myself to radio.

What has happened since that column is a mixed bag, to be sure. With exception of the LJ, print media coverage of our area has declined. But we are so much richer in other media than we were four years ago.

Continue reading Remaining Local Media Stronger Than Ever…

Do We Need Another Bill?

Wow. My guy Bill Richardson looked dreadful Sunday on Meet The Press. Heck, Ron Paul and Sen. Gravel looked better in their parties’ first debates. For video footage, click here. For the Cliff Notes version of his disaster, click here.

I know it’s early, but the man with the best resume is making the worst candidate. Timmy Russert made the New Mexico governor flip flop and squirm so many times I thought he he was going to roll over and say, “Never mind. As I said, being governor of New Mexico is the best job in the world and rather than answering questions like those again, I will live out my life in Albuquerque just to get away from you.”

I recall reading Colin’s post on Richardson over lunch on Sunday. I hadn’t seen it but caught the replay that night at 10 p.m. I remember thinking it wasn’t so bad until about halfway through when the governor admitted he had told a story about a dead soldier so many times on the stump that the kid’s mother asked him to stop.

But you gotta hand it to Richardson’s people. Campaign flak Joaquin H. Guerra posted a blog entry on the campaign website and dubbed the governor’s appearance “a great showing.” Wow, that takes testicular fortitude. I guess they subscribe to the old PR maxim that any publicity is good publicity.

P.S. If, as Richardson clumsily tried to do, you triangulate on whether you are a Red Sox or Yankees fan, then you are toast.

Mem Day Vid

Here is a video I took of the Salisbury events today that I posted on Youtube. We also plan to post or link to it on our home page at tcextra.com. The still image might not be visible but click on the arrow in the embedded frame and it should play. If it’s not visible, try clicking here.

Description: The Salisbury Central School Band marches in the Memorial Day Parade and a lone bugler plays taps at the town cemetery.

P.S. The crude and amateurish editing job of the two scenes was done by yours truly on iMovie.

Thanks For Your Service, Ladies and Gents

This was the gun salute at the Salisbury Town Cemetery this morning. I recognize three of the vets. At far left, that’s Selectman Peter Oliver, who served as a Marine Corp sniper in Vietnam. In the center is Jimmy Burns, who also served in the Marines. And in the sailor’s unform is Navy veteran Jason McGarry. The salute is followed immediately by the playing of Taps, which always reduces me to tears.

It never ceases to amaze me that this is the one event of the year that brings almost everyone in the town out of the woodwork. Maybe that’s because (whether you be left, right, center or on Mars) honoring sacrifice is one of those traditions we can all agree on.

To all those who served their country and died for it — not only soldiers, but police, emergency responders and members of the intelligence and diplomatic communites — you have my deepest gratitude.

Energy Drink

Two energy-related notes:

If you’re concerned about high gasoline prices, read this interesting piece in today’s Courant. It points out three salient points: 1) adjusted for inflation, gasoline prices are lower than they were in 1981. 2) The gross profit margins of the oil companies are actually far less than those of companies that manufacture beverages and computers, for example. 3) The government collects far more on a gallon of gas than Exxon-Mobil.

But as the author notes, you won’t find elected officials (left or right) who are willing to say those things because it’s much more politically palatable to turn people into victims and blame a big evil entity.

If you don’t like the price of oil, then use less of it. A collective decrease in consumption will bring the price down. In the last three years, we have replaced the old windows in our house with snug-fitting Pella thermopanes. And 90% of our light bulbs are now compact fluorescent, which use about 1/4 of the energy of highly inefficient incandescents. I am also working on cutting out unnecessary auto trips but I’m not there yet.

Continue reading Energy Drink…

Draft Dodging?

Is Bush dodging the issue of the draft? I remain opposed to military conscription, as I stated pretty emphatically in a previous post. But I will say that these two guys from the Center for American Progress make a great case for it in today’s LA Times.

Unlike a lot of draft supporters such as Charlie Rangel (who always brings race and class into the argument), Korb and Bergmann take a level-headed two-pronged approach: 1) our armed forces are currently stretched too thin for the current level of engagement required of them (which seems undeniable) and 2) the impact of a draft would impose serious limits on the ability of any president to wage a war for which there is little or no public support.

Could that be why Bush is ducking the issue?

I’m One and Out of Diapers

It occurred to me yesterday that today (Friday) is the one-year anniversary of this blog.

I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for that long. Musing about everything under the sun (and a few things under the radar).

My inaugural post (after the welcome) was about the opening of Cheffrey’s Off Main and the business climate in Salisbury. Things proceeded from there (or digressed, as the case may be) to more local issues such as controversies at Sharon Hospital, to tussles in Salisbury and Falls Village, to global warming, Wal-Mart, Hillary, scenic photos and my ongoing domestic battles with bats and ants.

I want to thank Jake — a really good friend I have known since 8th grade and an accomplished blogger himself — for encouraging me to enter the ’sphere. Most of all, I want to express my gratitude to my hundreds of readers, who, as I have said before, often have more interesting, funny and provocative things to say than I do. Thanks also to my publisher, Janet Manko, for giving me the opportunity to do this.

We have not always agreed, but I do hope this space has proved a useful forum for the exchange of ideas, observations and even some humor. I intend to keep this blog going for as long as I can.

P.S. BTW the record for comments (aside from live blogging on the presidential debates, which generates a lot of one-line comments from a handful readers) is a post on that erstwhile hotbed of controversy, Falls Village. 43 comments. Not bad for a post about a tiny school and the changes it faces. Have a piece of cake on me!

The Straight Poop On Bush

It’s a variation of raining on one’s parade.