Saturday, January 08, 2005
PRESS LORE
Old ideas will hang on!
The dream of so many newspaper editors - fine daily papers, still have a secret desire to, when they retire, buy and run a small town weekly.
Newspapering is a difficult occupation for one to leave. You don't just give it a quick thought, stand up and walk away from it as you might with other jobs. The news is still there; still happening and needs to be reported, written, printed and distributed to people eager for word of their world. It is the plan of many such old hands at newspaper work to get away from some of the hard work and yet keep some of it the more pleasurable moments close by.
. I have seen it tried with opposite results ; some and others not so good.
It is true, too, that a newspaper job is not the easiest job to leave. Newspaper is something that is more or less made from scratch every living day and they means you live what you do. It is seldom a matter of time clocks, style books, rules and rigid regulations and more of an inner urge a person learns to control as best he or she can in order to publish a worthwhile journalistic record of events and of the interactions their views cause among people.
As is the case with some many vocations today, there have been some radical changes in the nature of news gathering, news dissemination and news reading habits of subscribers in recent years. This has erased much of the real or imaginary glamor so often associated with the field.
Take a look at your own reading habits. Haven't they changed in recent years? You are doing less reading; seemingly not as much you once did in conventional newspapers. We now get most of our news from TV, radio, and from the various versions of both hometown and national - even international - papers and magazines on the Internet. We dwell on the particular type of news
we wish to follow - local, national or world-wide. We look for editorial comment either by editors of those sources we read or by that of independent person who may not be associated with the journalistic world at all. Readers today pick and choose their news from a variety of sources and are not confined to just one local just one “local” paper. Such terms as “Bloggers” and “I-Podders” - unknown a few years ago - are now becoming quite common.
People are said to object to having old newspapers pile up in their home. They see little reason why they should provide storage space for thousands of advertisement sheets for used cars, perishable foods, medicines they'll never use, exotic world of travel they could never afford and the birth of an Internet creation called “Craigslist” has all but put an end to “Classified Advertisements” in daily papers. Even without these features one of the nation's leading newspaper is getting larger and heavier as the months go by until it will soon take a forklift to throw it against our front door each morning.
There was time when a busy editor, retiring to run his weekly paper a a hobby, looked forward to having a full week in which to ponder what he intended to say in his editorials. No more. One week is too late in today's instant journalism.
A.L.M. January 8, 2005 [c571wds]
Friday, January 07, 2005
BUDGET TALK
If the founding father's of our nation had thought seriously about how much it was going to cost to maintain such a government, they may have had some second thoughts about certain portions of it.
The fantastic amounts of money now used in common conversation by our political leaders would have shocked the originators no end, I dare say.
I heard a voice on a talking head on C-Span the other day. The bottom line ident faded away before I got a good look at it, so I don't know who he was – a younger man – who observed,well beyond his years, I felt, that the main difficulty with our government costs today is not taxes ...cut or increased. It is less concerned with income at all but, rather with excessive, senseless and unnecessary spending.
The early leaders of our nation were not totally ignorant of that which today we called “pork” in the budget they set forth showing how much it would cost to run the government for a set fiscal period. Any such effort to pad the budget to take care of certain personal wants, desires and hopes of promising supporters would seem petty today.
I have notice it always seems to be the young politicians who speak of doing away with the back-scratching scheme but they lose interest in such plans after a few years go by. They vote, right along with timers and become aware of the values of such a non-conformist series of actions. It is not the politician who is to blame for the excessive abuse in this area; it is not the Congress-person,either. It is the voters at home who cause it to prosper. The politician is led to believe from real life experiences that the pork barrel route is the main road to take if one wants to get re-elected. Common sense tells you that you don't ignore or be too critical of that which has helped you get where you are. It must not be eliminated after it has proved to be so valuable, nor can it be curbed or led around on a leash, and it might even be wise enlarge it and to make it all a bit more by hiring some older writers in the for the Public Relation section. We,
you see, are the very ones who have profited most from the pols willingness to play the game.
Any chances of reform? I rather doubt it. Too many of us have a very real stake in the procedure remaining intact and active.
A.L.M. January 7, 2005 [c442wds]
Thursday, January 06, 2005
WILD CHOICE
I have been disappointed in recent weeks since the newest lawyer named to defend Saddam Hussein has been named.
The name of a well-known American lawyer and former U.S. Attorney General under two of our Presidents has set forth before the Christmas holidays as a American voice named to speak to the world lauding the innocence of the fallen Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
I expected to see, hear and possibly even feel the heat from a large group of American citizens in a burst of anger and contempt for he man who would gloss over evil with his legal services to Saddam. There has been only a slight rustle in the Media which, is once again, getting ready, it appears to allow itself to be sucked into a frothy whirlwind of wrath and condemnation, over failure to set forth a worthy story because of what appears to be political bias.
Even now, with the New Year well underway, you can mention the name “Ramsey Clark” in public and find few people who recognize the name, much less know that he has signed- on as one of the lawyers to defend Saddam Hussein.
Ramsey Clark, to jog our mutual memories a bit, was Lyndon Johnson's Attorney-General. The fact that he was the son of Tom C. Clark the Texan who had been appointed as Attorney-General and then as a member of the Supreme Court by President Harry S. Truman. Young Ramsey worked for a time at the county District Attorney's office in Dallas, then attended the University of Chicago. With a law degree, he returned to Dallas to set up a private practice specializing in antitrust matters. He had various partners, and one who lasted five years at it, left because he found it to be “financially unviable”. That ex-partner is quoted as having said that Ramsey Clark was “on the surface very congenial, but actually was quite unforthcoming.” A Kennedy Administration official said Ramsey Clark was “a pretty laconic fellow.”
I judge that official to have been a lawyer as well because I find most people I talk with seem to make use of a variety of all fifteen choices the thesaurus agrees exist – each with synonyms aplenty which can be used to make the
current term “laconic” either a praiseworthy trait or an insult. How the term was used by the quoted “Kennedy official” we cannot say, but judging by Clark's arena
actions in subsequent years the application may well have been a critical one.
Ziad Khasawna, spokesman for the ousted Iraqi president's stable of lawyers on December 29, 2004 when Ramsey Clark arrived in Jordan where the Saddam defense
team will be based, said that Ramsey Clark “had honored and inspired “ the legal team by agreeing to help defend Saddam.
The Iraq Special Tribunal was established by US-led officials to try former government members. Clark said that the United States must also be tried for the November assault on Falluja, destruction of houses, torture in prisons and its role in the deaths of thousands of Iraqis in the war. That gives us an idea of a few of the topics Ramsey Clark will be “laconic” about once the trials begin.
Right now is the proper time for the average American citizen and for the media to make an effort to become aware of information on this man before he begins
his wholesale harangue of accusations. To some his “uninhibited idealism and fervent defense of civil liberties” endeared him to some activists. He was known – both in praise and in censure, as ”The Preacher” when, at age 33,he was on Robert F. Kennedy's Justice Department staff. Robert Kennedy was thirty-five at the time.
He made unauthorized visits to Viet Nam 1972 and to Iran during hostage crisis of 1980. He defended the Harrisburg “Seven” led by Berrigan. He defended the Boston ”Five.” He served as counsel for former Nazi camp guards; for Milosevic, the ex-president of Serbia; worked with Gaddafi, in Libya on a failed attempt to sue Great Britain and the U.S. on behalf of school children allegedly killed in a bomb attack. He filed a motion against the U.S. in the Waco,Texas “Branch Davidians” Showdown. And such a list goes on-and-on seemingly without end
Ramsey Clark also insists the current tribunal is illegal.
Now is the time for our media groups to form public opinion to inform the citizens of this nation, and of the world, lest we be caught up in yet another “Strike Boat” situation which hit most people at election time in spite
of the fact that the films have been shown on C-Span as early as April of that election year and ignored by the media in line with wishful thinking in many areas of
the complex network.
Let's make an effort to stop that from happening again.
A.L.M. January 6, 2005 [c830 wds]
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
EXCESSIVE FEELINGS?
Off hand, I cannot recall a time in my memory when public sentiment seems to have been so deeply aroused by events of the day as with the current tsunami disaster.
Those times which do seem to equate with it are all of a nationalistic, restricted nature - such as Pearl Harbor Day, D-Day or the Moon Landing, when American's responded with exceptional shows of feelings of a patriotic nature.
The “Tsunami of 04-05”, as must eventually be called since it is a continuing thing - with strong aftershocks still being felt in some areas, plus new realizations of additional loss of life and property.
It is far from being ended.
Consider some of the strange things which have happened during the past week.
An earthquake takes place far from our shores in the Indian Ocean and our our advanced communications systems brought the actual visual horror of it, with special impact, into our homes and we came to realize rather bluntly that we were faced with a tremendous force and uncontrollable power in this strange explosion in our Earth's plates under the usually rather placid waters of the Indian Ocean just south of India and west of the coast of Malaysian. In all, before it will have ended, at least eleven nations of people will have suffered heavy property damage and each has steadily growing lists of dead, missing or injured. The economic base of most of those nations has been stripped away, shattered and dependent entirely on outside assistance. It was evident that such help must be prompt and plentiful – well beyond even exceptional bounds.
It has been heartening to be even just a small part of the emotional response to the need of this special ordeal. The response has come from individuals who have made exceptional contributions, commercial and industrial, even a show of some nations attempting to outdo others and finding it difficult to overcome past grievances real or imagined.
This can be seen as a special time of evaluation for many of Mankind's contrived arrangements called governments, unions, associations, denominations, types, kinds or divisions of all kinds.
Can we, indeed, work together, for the common good of all?
A.L.M. January 5, 2005 [c384wds]
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005
HOW SECURE?
Any man or woman who expects the federal government to supply one-hundred per cent security is asking the impossible. The present situation is even more demanding because we don't know exactly who might be an enemy or a friend.
The path which has been taken by our National Defense authorities makes good common sense. The immediate concerning was to set about curbing the flow of persons crossing our national bounds. This irritates a good many citizens who do not see why they should be inconvenienced in their air, sea, or train and car travel.
Whatever is undertaken to attempt the ”get a handle”on the proper way co do a thing with maximum safety for all concerned will be greeted with contempt when suggested. You probably remember back when it was decided that we needed thousands of new workers who's job it would be to inspect the rest of us when we chose to board aircraft other means of public travel. Where do you get thousands of such people? Who will train them? How long will it take together such a force of inspectors to keep terrorists from taking bombs, box cutters,knives,guns or things that look like any of them on our planes? In just a few weeks we had a veritable army of such people jammed into hastily constructed check0out areas at our airports and every edition of every paper carried some stories of the gross ineptness of the “inspectors.” It developed over weeks of argument, that there was no requirement that such persons had to be citizens of the United, ought to be able to red and write or that they bathed frequently and who were schooled in working hours other than those they liked best. Turnover was terrific or a time. It took a while for everyone - inspectors and inspected - to settle into the new routines. We,in actual performance came to realize that no new plan is going to be perfect in every detail. Checking became spot-checking. Screening became scanning and inspections became a game of sorts.
Oddly, such a system works far better than one might imagine. The average American is not bomb-laden self-eliminator. Checkers learn to insect only those who express some sort of negative opinion, or someone who engages in suspicious actions. Years later we find that the many security concerns have been largely met with great improvements within the system. Inspectors have learned to work with each other, rather than to compete. They have found that much more can be done in preventative ways. With some exceptions, we hear far fewer stories about inept decisions made by inspectors. The most recent surge of complaints has, you may have noticed, come from more mature women passengers who are of the opinion that the “patting down” for firearms concealment is a bit too personal in nature.
A.L.M. January 4, 2005 [c488wds]
Monday, January 03, 2005
SCENIC ROUTE
What is the intended meaning when we use the term - “with”Congressional oversight?”
To me, that has always been to put Congress in charge of inspections of the business to ascertain if it was being properly managed. It seem, however, than the concept has been confused with the tourism term of ”overlook”. Congress should have a bit more responsibility than to simply “look at” a problem within any program over which they have some control. Too often, it appears, it becomes combination of “too many cooks spoil the broth” and “what is everybody's business, is nobody's business.”
Grandma's old sayings apply with ease because the idea itself is somewhat dated .The italicizes are extensive,too. Usually such supervision bodies consist of three or more members of our Congress and one usually proves to be dominant .The affairs of the body under study and are managed to suit the career needs of the head honcho. It looks good to have mentions of his having “participated” in governing such-and-such a-principality or city,alter when election forms are being crafted. Our national capital of Washington, D.C. is such a city. It has local government of a sort which is a under the ”oversight” of a governing body largely from the House. It makes very little difference for the citizen who has potholes in his street or thinks he pays far to much for garbage pick-up. The average citizen feels he has no government. In theory he or she can vote in their home state of they know what that might be, but many D.C. residents think of themselves as being vote less. The worst part about all of this is that the citizens of “states:”50do not realize the special situation in which D.C 'ers find themselves entangled.
We hear appeals for statehood from time-to-time, but that test ball is promptly batted into left field and forgotten. Forefathers and founders are mis-quoted liberally. Some fight the idea of a State of Columbia because they have a problem of how to fit another another star on the national flag. We've managed from thirteen to whatever it is currently - fifty, fifty-one or two? C'mon, admit it! You're not absolutely sure, are you? Some will seriously inquire what we would, then, do for star positioning if California decides to become three states by some prize-winning “Proposition Number 13-1/2” ; Texas becoming five states - North, East, South, West and Mid Texas, and don't even think about an overpopulated Alaska!
Overseers are overlooking a lot it seems. We are the ones who oversee the overseers, too.
A.L.M. January 3, 2004 [c450wds]
Sunday, January 02, 2005
FAMOUS ALLEY
A great many cities lay claim to having some beautiful and historic streets, boulevards and very often their special names causes you to think of them as being wider area than just a single street. Philadelphia has a passageway which has survived over three hundred years of growth and change in that vibrant city. It's an alley and when TV shows are done from Philly you can almost assured that some of the background you see will be shots from Elfreth's Alley.
It narrow street is named after a blacksmith by the name of Jerimiah Elfreth who had a successful business on 2nd Street no too far from the Delaware River. In the mid-l8th Century Elfreth became one the largest real estate owners in the city when he built a long line of homes along that passageway. He rented many of them to sea captains, boat wrights and one to lady who created fine do-dads to decorate that day's finest window drapes. At the turn of the century there was decided change in the alley's population. The industrial era boomed it became home to skilled laborers, tailors and it even had a stove factory. The people who rented homes in the Alley up from Elfreth's blacksmith's shop were caring individuals, both the original occupants and those who took their places. The general style of homes changed very little. Georgian and Federal styles of buildings predominated in Philadelphia and Elfreth's Alley has a modest but well- preserved set of exampl,es for both architectural styles. One, in particular, known as the Georgian “Trinity”, is said to be unique.
You may say you have not seen it because you have never visited the City of Brotherly Love, but if you watched recent editions of "Wheel of Fortune" or of "Jeopardy" many of the background shots originated in The Alley. Today it is yet another dwelling site- this time for professional,persons, for artists, handicraftsmen and people interested in the historical heritage of the area. One of the homes is set aside as museum and the Philadelphia's Historical mission has provided ease a treasury of Americana. The Museum is the product of seen decade of study, preservation, restoration and good housekeeping in a large sense. It has have enabled the Commission to create and maintain the museum, do tours of the Alley area and and two housed are used - the Mantua House for tours and the Windsor Chair Maker's Chair Maker's House is open to the public as a gift shop.
Many of the homes along the alley were built around 1720 and the butchers, the bakers and the candlestick maker's who lived in them were the backbone of of colonial society. You may think the houses were too small by today's standards.. That problems become even more troubling when you find that two families often shared them. By family sizes those days, that means twenty-seven people shared the living space in and around them.
A fourth change is taking place gradually in the Alley. The very homes which in the time of blacksmith and land speculator Jeremiah Elfreth's provided a place for small, home-owned, family-operated businesses are a phase which is coming around once more. Today's service and technology culture puts individuals in charge of new fields of work they can do on their own and their presence is changing Elfreth's Alley back to what it used to be save in modern dress featuring Colonial era finery. Cobblestone street pavements, the old-fashioned flower boxes at the window sills, spilling bright colors between the heavy shutters fixed to the sides of each opening. Flemish bond brick work of the finest is there along with other older architectural details and, once again, people who make things are vying to re-occupy the historic alley which seems to be ready to “boom “ all over again.
A.L.M. January 2, 2005 [c656ds]
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