An Emotional Night

Here are a few pictures that were taken after Barack Obama was named the President-Elect. All pictures were taken at the Bluenote in Columbia, Mo.

 

David Finke, Columbia, Mo. resident clasps his hands. For many Democrats, Obama's election seemed like an answer to prayers.

 

Bill Monroe, a Columbia, Mo. resident and delegate for the to the Democrat National Convention in Denver, cheers and waves an American flag after the announcement that Barack Obama is the next president of the United States. 

University of Missouri-Columbia students smile as they watch CNN announcing Obama's election on the large screen at the Bluenote in Columbia, Mo.

Believing your Bias

I will be straight forward and admit that I am not a Sarah Palin fan. I could go into much detail about why not, but that is not the issue I wish to address. Why this is important is because last week, Fox News reported that McCain insiders said that Palin did not know that Africa was a continent and did not know which countries were involved in NAFTA. When these reports came out, I quickly send a text to my brother asking him if he had heard. I found great entertainment in this report. Now if you had asked me if I honestly believed that Palin did not know Africa was a continent, I probably would have told you that she most likely knew but misspoke, which was still enough of a reason to criticize her.

But as it turns out, I made a horrible assumption. A couple days after my journalism professor brought up the issue in class, a NY Times article was published revealing that the "McCain adviser" was actually a hoaxer. He had tricked the media into believing he was a true adviser by creating a blog with the name Martin Eisenstadt and by talking to the media.

Here is a link to the article with a picture of the man, whose true identity is Dan Mirvish.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html

So you see that even I was fooled by this fraud. Clearly, this was not something that should have ever seemed plausible, that is the fact that Palin thought Africa was a continent. However, the recent studies on how little Americans know, combined with my own personal bias, led me astray. As seekers of truth, we must be careful to not let anyone, whether that person be some guy creating lies out of his gloomy office (Mirvish) or yourself, lead you away from the truth.

Out in the Nick of Time

Yesterday, as part of the election coverage, I was assigned to follow the Columbia branch of the NAACP. Throughout the day, they were offering rides to the polls and going from place to place encouraging citizens to vote. So I went with the president Mary Ratliff to go find people and ask them if they had voted. As she spoke, I snapped some pictures and got people's names for The Maneater newspaper. After a couple of stops, we pulled into Douglass Park at what I estimate to be somewhere between noon and 12:15 p.m. There, dozens of men sat smoking and drinking, but Ratliff was not afraid at all to go up to them. She encouraged them to vote, and many of them said they already had. After a while, we left and went around to other areas of town to spread the word. 

We got back to the headquarters, and I took off for one of my classes. Later that evening, I returned to the NAACP headquarters for more reporting and Ratliff came up and told me some startling news. A little before 1 p.m., someone had been shot six times to death at  Douglass Park. My first reaction was to thank God that He got me out of there in time. I could not believe that we had been there only minutes before. My second reaction was one of pensiveness. Was the victim someone I had talked to? Could he have been in one of my pictures? I still do not know the answer to those questions, but I know that my eyes were opened yesterday. I am not sure to what exactly, but they were certainly opened.

First Time Voter

Today, I voted for the first time in my life. There wasn't any big party because of it, and I surely did not change the world. Still, knowing I had a part in choosing the next president of the United States, as well as several local officials, makes me feel good (at least for now. If the new president ends up making things worse, I may want to pretend I had no part in it.) There really is no good way to describe it. I guess the only thing I can really say is that I do not understand how or why people would not vote unless they truly are in a stalemate in their own minds. Even then, you do not have to vote for every candidate, so at least go and vote for someone. Out of about a dozen or so races, surely they can make a decision about at least one. 

There is not much else to say. I probably will have forgotten about this day several years down the road, and certainly my situation is not unique as millions of people were first time voters today. All I can say is that today, we must simply watch and wait. No one really can predict exactly what will happen over the next four years. No one certainly could have predicted Bush's two terms. So here I am. As I cast my ballot, I felt a sense of power and responsibility. But as I wait, I feel a sense of helplessness. The moment I put that ballot in the machine, I lost all control. So here we are. Let's watch and see.

Every Journalist Needs an Outlet

If you have ever picked up a newspaper, you know that one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issue in the media is how to remain unbiased. Everyone has their own opinions, and reporting on those topics without allowing your own bias to slip in is sometimes near impossible. What I have found, however, is that if journalists are allowed to have some sort of an outlet to speak their views, they will be able to report more objectively. For example, this past week, I went to a Republican watch party to cover some of the responses people had on the Presidential debate. While I was reporting, I found it hard not to spout off my own beliefs, but what kept me sane was knowing that after I finished, I would be able to call my brother and rant and rave all I wanted. I will not tell you to which side I lean in the election (if you can't already guess from my previous blogs), but I strongly believe from experience that journalists should be allowed to speak their mind every once in a while.

To be completely honest, I have become jealous of those people who are allowed to picket in the streets on issues ranging from abortion to global warming. I envy people who can put up signs in their front yard and wear shirts that say "Obama Girl" or "I love John McCain" in big bold letters. People do not realize what a privilege it is to be able to express these beliefs, but I have chosen to forgo this right in order to present the truth to the public as clearly as possible. But this is not being said so that you feel sorry for me. Instead, I just want people to understand how valuable their opinion is, and how it should not be taken advantage of or misused. 

So back to the issue of journalists. Should they be able to speak about their beliefs? I do not think they should be extremely vocal about them because many people would then bring it into their writing. It would be extremely difficult for the public to see past a clearly liberal or conservative filter. But at the same time, journalists should not have to suppress all their beliefs. I think the public should be able to know who a journalist supports and what those journalists religious beliefs are. But that is about as far as it should go. If a journalist feels the need to rant and rave, he needs to find a confidante, like I have in my brother to go "spill his guts out to." Blogs can fulfill this need to an extent, but because of their lack of privacy, they can easily cross the boundary. This is a difficult issue with no simple solution, but the main point is that journalists should attempt to be objective in their method of journalism and need to find ways to control and direct their opinions toward productive outcomes.

My New Blog

I would like to address the new blog that I just started entitled Footprints Devotionals. If you look under my profile, you will see it listed there. I want to address it because I do not see this as any hindrance to the work that I am doing here on this blog. In fact, I think it is better that those who read this blog understand where I am coming from. Although I try to be unbiased in the writings that I present as fact (in contrast with the opinion articles such as the smoking blog below), obviously I have certain beliefs that show through in my writing. I believe that it is better for you to know what I believe rather than being inundated with my biases unaware of what is at hand. I conclude by saying that my being a Christian does not hinder my journalistic abilities. In fact, if anything, it should only make my journalism better because the first loyalty in journalism is to the truth, and seeking truth and being truthful is at the core of my Christian beliefs. I hope this explains my situation. Please feel free to comment at will.

Addiction Affects the Non-Addicted

After coming to college, I thought I would quickly become accustomed to the endless trail of smoke that is left behind students and faculty alike as they walk to their various classes. However, even now, a month into school, I feel as though every time I inhale a cloud of their smoke, I am surely coming a minute closer to my death by lung cancer. Perhaps I am being overdramatic, but I am simply expressing the plea of my stomach, which quickly overturns itself and causes me to feel as though I will vomit whenever I walk behind a smoker. 

Although I do not understand the addiction whatsoever (as I have never attempted to smoke before), I think I do understand common courtesy. And blowing smoke in some innocent bystander's face as you walk by is what I would classify as rude. All this being said without even mentioning the other factors which include littering (one of if not my biggest pet peeve of all time), personal health effects, and indirect influence on others. I cannot help but think that if a person were attempting to quit smoking, they would have to drop out of school because they would not be able to attend any of their classes without smelling that excruciating mix of nicotine and whatever other garbage they place in cigarettes that they say is "pleasant" or "enjoyable" or any of the other equivocal terms they use, sending the pitiful ex-smoker into unconquerable cravings for their captor, nicotine. 

I must mention that I do find the smell of cigars somewhat appealing, but I would gladly never smell another cigar if it meant never having to smell a cigarette again. I do not pretend to offer a solution to this trend which so enthralls Americans. To be honest, most people probably find me completely and utterable unsympathetic to smokers. After all, is it really their fault that they have become addicted for a lifetime after one or two experiments with cigarettes? If you knew me, you would quickly see that abstinence, or more aptly termed stubbornness, is one of my most strongest attributes. So, I cannot possibly understand why a person cannot simply refuse nicotine.

But enough of my babbling. As I said before, I do not propose to offer a solution to smoking, but only desire to give a different perspective than those that have been proposed before so that people may see a more complete picture of the situation, or I would call it, plight.