Sons and daughters of the news media...

... War has been declared on us by a hostile aggressor intent on stealing whatever piddly credibility we may yet hold with the public. Are we to run, then? Or are we to stand and fight? Will Bunch has written the journalistic equivalent of the William Wallace speech.

"Because there is a war for the soul of this nation going right now, and we the media are involved -- not as some would like to think, as some kind of passive UN peacekeeping force -- but as a party that is in the acrid smoke of combat, under attack in a manner that's little different from the way that parts of Georgia were overrun by the Russian Army a few weeks ago. And frankly, American newsrooms face a situation that could be described in similar terms to that former Soviet Republic -- nearly defeated, and demoralized, with few if any allies that are willing to come to our aid. And despite the dire situation, most journalists are cruising along toward Nov. 4 as if it's business as usual, and that is what I personally find most alarming."

...

Remember, they declared war on us for the same reason that anyone declares war: Because they perceive us as weak. And why wouldn't they? Newspapers have gone from cash cows to an ink-stained version of Lehman Brothers in a couple of short years; there are fewer reporters on the campaign trail and fewer reporters at the conventions (it didn't look that way from afar, but my paper, the Daily News, has gone from four to three to two to one reporter since 1996. There are fewer reporters in Washington and, regarding a major issue in the 2008 race, fewer reporters giving a true picture of what's going on Iraq.

At the same time, consider the run-up to Iraq as the war games where the current tactics were proved so effective -- the time when we showed it was more important to let one side, the White House, set the narrative, and tried feebly to balance it with a response way down in the story, rather than trying to investigate what was the truth about Iraq's ties to al-Qaeda or weapons of mass destruction. They know that we can be crushed with our own antiquated rules -- established in a different era, when the Internet didn't exist and when newspapers had a different, monopoly role, and when politics...well, OK, I know it wasn't beanbag, but it wasn't quite the bloodsport it is today, I believe."

So what is our call to arms? Bunch encourages us to use our time-tasted battle arsenal, but also to use the weapons of modern reporting warfare between now and November 4—and beyond.

1) Make fact-checking our number one priority in reporting.

2) Don't be afraid to call a spade a spade and a lie a lie.

3) Don't be compelled to cover either candidates' video press releases as if they were news. Ditto for their families—the good and the bad. If they are deemed off limits, then let it be so.

4) Make truth-telling fun and lively. Think: "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

We may lose our livelihood as we know it, but they can't take away our freedom to report! Bloggers, journalists, citizen journalists, editors, freelancers and pundits—UNITE against the tyranny of campaign lies!

Things that make you, "Hmmm"

This little ditty came across the transom from my good friend to the rest of my peeps as we modern working moms try to make sense of what it means to be a woman and a feminist in this election. For your pondering pleasure...

Interesting piece from a NY publication:

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow , Trig, Piper and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, left your wife, and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA , your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now....

Some Tweets on Palin

I am addicted to Twitter. During Obama's acceptance speech at the DNC, I sat in my family room with my laptop and joined a collection of followers and followees in a shared viewing experience. Son #1 sat next me and said, "So is this like texting for adults."

Yeah, I guess it is, only you're not texting one individual, you're talking to a group of people. While there may be some shared followers, no two Twitterers share the same conversation.

Increasingly, I find myself using it as a place for mini-posts that replace regular longer posts here on Creative Ink. Call me lazy, but sometimes it's just easier to post a pithy 140-character thought than to carve out the time for something longer here. I'm striving for better balance.

Today, I've been reading about Charles Gibson's interview with Gov. Sarah Pallin. Here are the tweets based on what I've read this morning:

In response to WAPO article in which Jill Zimon is quoted about how Palin manages home/family/work:
@Jillmz Nice! Article is interesting and begging for a blog post. WHY do we have to bring up mommy wars????? about 4 hours ago from web in reply to Jillmz

Retweeting item by Tracy Zollinger:
Retweeting @tinymantras Wondering if Sarah Palin will be interviewed by any female journalists before the election. about 4 hours ago from web

My musing after reading several stories about how Obama campaign needs to get back on message:
Paging Aaron Sorkin: We need an Andrew Shepard moment to refocus campaigns on what really matters. about 3 hours ago from web

Response to Paul Krugman's piece Blizzard of Lies:
Krugman: "how a politician campaigns tells you a lot about how he or she would govern." http://is.gd/2wW5 about 2 hours ago from web

Reflecting on Obama's two-hour lunch with Bill Clinton:
What would Bill do? Politico takes a crack: http://is.gd/2wSo about 2 hours ago from web

Joan Walsh thinks McCain/Palin making mockery of 9/11:
"There is a constituency of people who want their president...to be just as clueless and uninformed as they are." http://is.gd/2x9W about 1 hour ago from web

Finally, this morning, the review from Atlantic's James Fallow's in China:
James Fallows on what Sarah Pallin didn't know: http://is.gd/2x8D. Reason? She was not interested enough.

Creative Ink is on hiatus

In light of aggressive and hostile comments and creepy online activity that I found disturbing, I've chosen to make Creative Ink a private blog for now. I will resume normal posting activity when the matter is resolved.

In the meantime, you can also visit me on Twitter.

September 8, 2008

Dave Matthews Band performs #41

EDGE subcommittee IDs skills and knowledge for future

The state Subcommittee on Education in a Global Environment (EDGE) researched the skills, knowledge and behaviors that businesses believe students will need to be successful in the global economy. Here's the top 10 list posted on Ohio Department of Education list. Public can add feedback here.

Top 10 List of Findings

The following is a Top 10 list of findings from the EDGE subcommittee research
on the most important skills, knowledge and behaviors students will need to
provide Ohio with competitive advantages in the new global economy:

1. Critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and applied knowledge for practical results

2. Mastery of rigorous academic content, especially in literacy, mathematics, and information technologies

3. Innovative and creative thinking, including entrepreneurial skills

4. Communication skills, both oral and written

5. Team learning and work, relationship building, and interpersonal social skills

6. Alignment of education with the needs of economic development, including better communications and cooperation between educators and business people*

7. Personal responsibility, including good work habits, work ethic, knowing how to be flexible and continue learning, and financial literacy

8. Global awareness, languages, and understanding other cultures (including history, economics and geography)

9. Communications and better interfaces between K-12 public education and post-secondary/higher education to make high school graduates better prepared for the next stages of their education and lives*

10. Teacher education, preparation, and professional development to support content mastery and skill development, including applied learning (or problem-based learning) across disciplines in a global context*

*While these items are not necessarily knowledge, skills or behaviors, they were among the top 10 responses and address changes needed in Ohio's education system

The fork in the road

It's been a while since I've posted with any regularity here at Creative Ink. Humble apologies to any regular readers I might have. My creative and productive energies have been diverted elsewhere for the past few months into some very important and meaningful personal projects that required my full attention.

As a result, I've had little brain activity leftover to share meaningful thoughts here. I'll try to do better as life starts to settle into the normal workday/school day routine. Part of what I've done this summer is explore where I want to take my career moving forward. I have possible paths, but certainly nothing definitive. I am at the proverbial fork in the road.

I've spent four and a half years working full-time as an independent journalist from home. It's been great in so many ways. Here are some professional highlights:

• Started Creative Ink in March 2004 and through that writing began reconnecting with the dreams of my younger self.

• Traveled to New York City for the first time twice in 2004 and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Big Apple on my own.

• Got my passport and my first passport stamps when I traveled to Seoul, South Korea in 2004. I was one of the only female speakers at East Asia Journalists Forum, which obligated me to perform many toasts during our meals.

• Had my first PD feature published in May 2004; lead to weekly book reviews in PD for 18 months before burnout set in and freelance budgets were slashed.

• Traveled to New York City and Las Vegas in 2005, both times with awesome traveling companion Jill Zimon. 

• While in Las Vegas in 2005, had exclusive interview with former New York Times reporter Judith Miller upon her release from prison.

• Discovered the beauty and soulfulness of Thomas Merton; wrote article in 2005 on his influence on modern-day Catholics that started a three-year working relationship with Catholic Universe Bulletin. Oh, and that story also won first place in religion coverage in 2006 Ohio SPJ Awards.

• Traveled to Chicago in August 2006, but I'm disappointed to say that I saw little of the city other than the conference hotel and the Billy Goat Tavern. I hope to return soon.

• Had first article published in Continental Magazine in October 2006.

• Applied for and was accepted as a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors in February 2007

• Traveled to Anniston, Alabama, in April 2007 where I met Gay Talese and Rick Bragg among a host of other wonderful southern storytellers who continue to inspire me.

• Risked much professionally, personally and financially by calling out national SPJ leadership on a bad decision that ultimately was reversed in August 2007. Still a painful memory, but something I would do again in a heartbeat because it was the right thing to do.

• Started my third year of writing about small schools transformation at Cleveland Heights High School in August 2007 and discovered a passion for urban education that may dictate my future professional plans.

• Began consulting editor relationship with Catalyst Ohio magazine in November 2007 that continues to this day.

• Applied for Peter Jennings Fellowship for Journalism and the Constitution, was accepted and traveled to Philadelphia, Penn., in March 2008. Among my colleagues there was Atlantic national correspondent and author Mark Bowden, who has been very kind and generous in providing direction and assistance when asked.

• Had my first feature published in the Christian Science Monitor in April 2008, with subsequent stories in May and July.

• Was shocked, confused and then honored to be named Cleveland SPJ Distinguished Service Award winner in May 2008.

• Won first place in feature writing for article about group of St. Ignatius High School pallbearers from the Catholic Press Association in June 2008.

Over the summer I reached a few conclusions that will alter my writing future. First, is the financial reality that with my oldest son heading to college in three years, I need a more stable and consistent form of income. Second, is that I'm exhausted—I mean could sleep for a week straight exhausted—by the nonstop hustle of getting work and trying to get paid in something resembling a timely manner. Third, is that I realize my writing has reached a point of stagnation. Stagnation is akin to death for a writer. I need new creative challenges to push me forward. Fourth is that I'm tired of working in isolation. I'd like to be a part of a more collaborative working environment that allows me to brainstorm, share and learn from others.

So where do I see myself in the next few months? I honestly don't know. I'd like to continue being a journalist, though frankly the opportunities to do so and remain in Cleveland are extraordinarily limited. I check the job boards daily and there's little in Ohio, let alone in Cleveland. I've reached out to some colleagues, but the news is always dire about cutbacks rather than hiring. I'm not about to close off any path. I do have some potential opportunities in the works that could fall into any of the following categories:

1) Find a great job at an existing media outlet that allows me to explore narrative and new media journalism either as a writer and/or editor.

2) Get some funding and start my own new media venture that allows me to lead a team of professional, citizen and student journalists toward development and launch of a dynamic multimedia site.

3) Go to graduate school to study history and begin work on becoming a history professor.

4) Find another avenue for using my writing and editing skills outside of journalism. 

5) What every writer aspires to do: write a book. 

My path is not clear, but I hope it will be illuminated soon.  

Phelps, ADHD and teachers

Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps was diagnosed as ADHD as a child. His mom, Debbie, spoke this week about how swimming helped him to focus. There's this little item from Teacher Magazine this week:

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Deborah Phelps, middle school principal and mother of Michael, the most medaled Olympian in history, remembers how her son’s elementary school teacher once told her, “Your son will never be able to focus on anything.”

Good thing he had an elementary teacher willing to think so highly of his talents. What I find most interesting in the comments feed of this post are all the people saying how brave Debbie Phelps is for talking openly about Michael's ADHD. What they should be discussing is how the statement I've bolded makes them look like complete, insensitive cads. Nothing like making an uninformed sweeping judgment about a kid at such an early age to really boost their drive.

That is one MAJOR problem with teachers. They have the power to inspire, which I hope they use well, but they also have the power to kill a kid's spirit. 

Invest in a girl...

... and she will do the rest.

Visit The Girl Effect.

Join the Monitor in real-time reporting on "Little Bill Clinton"

Here's another reason why I'm so proud to be a contributor to the Christian Science Monitor. Last night I received an e-mail from my editor about a new project called, "Little Bill Clinton: A School Year in the Life of a New American" by reporter Mary Wittenberg and photographer Melanie Stetson-Freeman.

According to the editor: "This year-long narrative project about a refugee charter school in Atlanta, the International Community School. The face of the project will be Congolese third-grader Bill Clinton Hadam – but it will also include story threads from refugees from 35 countries."

I'm thrilled to see that this kind of unconventional, in-depth reporting is taking place and would jump at the chance to be involved in such a project here. 

ABC News and the anthrax story

In the years since 2001, I had largely forgotten what it felt like to live under the sustained fear of unimaginable terrorism hovering over our collective conscience. But it all came rushing back in the wake of suicide death of Bruce Ivins, the FBI's lead suspect in the anthrax attacks of October 2001. 

Salon's Glenn Greenwald has two compelling pieces (here and here) that call into question ABC News' role in perpetuating the Islamic extremist, Saddam Hussein, Iraqi biological weapons role in perpetuating that fear and the warmongering against Iraq that resulted. There are many serious questions to be asked of ABC News, namely who were its unnamed sources. 

Jay Rosen and Dan Gillmor have posted three questions for ABC News and I'll add my voice to the chorus of those seeking accountability in the reporting process. 

Three Vital Questions for ABC News About its Anthrax Reporting in 2001

1. Sources who are granted confidentiality give up their rights when they lie or mislead the reporter. Were you lied to or misled by your sources when you reported several times in 2001 that anthrax found in domestic attacks came from Iraq or showed signs of Iraqi involvement?

2. It now appears that the attacks were of domestic origin and the anthrax came from within U.S. government facilities. This leads us to ask you: who were the “four well-placed and separate sources” who falsely told ABC News that tests conducted at Fort Detrick showed bentonite in the anthrax sent to Sen. Tom Daschle, causing ABC News to connect the attacks to Iraq in multiple reports over a five day period in October, 2001?

3. A substantially false story that helps make the case for war by raising fears about enemies abroad attacking the United States is released into public debate because of faulty reporting by ABC News. How that happened and who was responsible is itself a major story of public interest. What is ABC News doing to re-report these events, to figure out what went wrong and to correct the record for the American people who were misled?

Greenwald's columns also illustrate other questionable actions, such as the tip Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen received about taking Cipro to ward off deadly effects of anthrax. He accepted privileged information and used it for his personal benefit. 

Interestingly, Greenwald's column also sheds a bit of insight into the federal shield law debate. Readers of CI know that I am opposed to legislating reporter's privilege because I believe the First Amendment applies to everyone. The press should not receive a special privilege. As it's written the Free Flow of Information Act does more to protect journalism as a business (in other words the large media organizations) than it does to protect individual journalists. And there are enough exclusions and exceptions to render its protection meaningless.

Good journalism, particularly investigative journalism, is hard work and any notion that the government is helping to make that job "easier" is abhorrent to me as a journalist. Greenwald writes:

Source confidentiality is premised on a model of journalism where the media is adversarial to the Government, and safeguarding the anonymity of sources is the only way to find out what the Government is doing. But these days, so frequently, the media serves as an arm of the Government -- the Government uses the establishment media to disseminate propaganda and outright lies to the public (Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman, Saddam's aluminum tubes) or even uses leaks to the media to commit crimes (as it did in the Plame case). When the journalists who are used to spread these lies or commit these crimes then conceal who it is who has done such things, they are complicit in the Government wrongdoing, key enablers of it.

By endorsing the sanctity of that Government-media relationship through shield laws and the like (which I've always supported in the past), it's actually -- perversely -- bestowing the Government with yet another tool to shield its misconduct from the public.

(Bold is mine.)

The top job, take two

Great piece on women (or lack thereof) in high-profile media positions at The G Spot. H/T to Jill for sharing the link. I wrote about the dearth of women in high-profile journalism positions recently here. 

Here are a couple of take-aways from the G Spot piece, but I hope you'll read it in its entirety.

"Liberal women, and especially liberal feminist women, are not particularly welcome in opinion journalism."

"Media outlets have gotten beaten up so hard by the right for their alleged "liberal" (ha!) bias that for a long time now, they've shied away from hiring strongly liberal columnists (and the ones that fall through the cracks, like Paul Krugman, seem to get there by accident -- remember, Krugman was hired by the Times back in the days when he best-known as a fan of globalization and the neoliberal world order)."

"The key to getting more women opinion columnists and more (salaried) women bloggers out there is … to keep on publicizing this issue, and need to keep the pressure on … Some of it is just plain laziness -- men considering only people they know through their own personal networks, who tend to be largely male. Or men having an unconscious bias in favor hiring others like them (same sex, same race, similar class or educational background, etc.) With the well-meaning guys out there who are sympathetic towards feminism, probably all they need is a little pressure, a bit of pushback. I'm pretty sure we can through to them. And if we make enough noise we can at least have some influence over the others."

Time is short today, but rest assured I'll be returning to this topic frequently. 

Catalyst magazine wants to know: What do you think of Gov. Strickland's proposal for cabinet-level education director?

Weigh in on Ohio Governor Ted Strickland's proposal to appoint a cabinet-level director of the Ohio Department of Education and relegate the superintendent of public instruction and state school board to the roles of advisors.

What are the pluses? What are the minuses? Who wins and who loses? How will it contribute to or detract from improved teacher quality and student achievement?

Take the Catalyst quiz.

Why citizen effort is needed on Cuyahoga County story

Ed Morrison just sent me a link to a new site called Map the Mess: Cleaning Up Cuyahoga County.

It' s a citizen journalism effort using social networking software to map the many business and civic connections among Cuyahoga County's leadership. This is the perfect story in which to use the mapping technology, social networking and crowdsourcing. 

The vastness of this story will never be fully understood if people don't report and explain connections. A quick chat with friends and neighbors usually brings forward more connections that have yet to be reported in the mainstream press. However, this type of effort only retains credibility if the information posted can be verified.  

Cuyahoga County: What's next?

There's a certain thrill to watching the unraveling of the Cuyahoga County political patronage machine. We (Dan and I) spent the evening speculating with neighbors about how deep the deception lies, what the FBI and IRS are searching for, when (if?) charges will be filed, how long this has been going on and who will benefit.

Today's PD is reporting that D-A-S Construction CEO Steve Pumper is singing. Russo's attorney, Richard Lillie, claims there was no quid pro quo. But as Valdis Krebs has shown here and here, there are ways around direct quid pro quo.

The question percolating in my mind today, in addition to when will we learn more, is what kind of long-term impact this will have on important county services that residents depend on—MetroHealth Medical Center, Board of Mental Retardation/Developmental Disability, Children and Family Services and Support Enforcement Agency. Cuyahoga County residents, dwindling in numbers, are not going to support tax increases without some serious changes in how government is delivered and held accountable.

Yesterday's reporting focused primarily on the scope of the search warrants executed. Now it's time to look deeper into the fallout from this public corruption.

The Sound of Ideas will be discussing shortly.

FBI/IRS raid county admin

Big stuff breaking at Cuyahoga County Admin building. I'll be following this story closely.

Journalism's self-inflicted woes

From Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard earlier this summer. Rosenberg is a co-founder of Salon.

"There’s no question in my mind that the woes of the journalism profession today have been at least partially self-inflicted. At the very historical moment that the news pros faced relentless new scrutiny from a vast army of dedicated amateur watchdogs and expert critics, they offered up a relentless sequence of missteps and disasters. Some were failures of professionalism, from the Jayson Blair meltdown to the Dan Rather screwup. But the biggest — the absence of a stiff media challenge to the Bush administration’s Iraq war misinformation campaign — was a failure of civic responsibility. With that failure, the professionals forfeited their claim to special privilege or unique public role as challengers of official wrongdoing and ferreters of truth. The democracy still needs these roles filled, of course. But after the Iraq bungle, the professional journalists’ claim to own them exclusively became much harder to accept."

"This talk is about living your life...it's for my kids"

You owe it to yourself to watch this lecture. It is pure joy and inspiration. Unfortunately, Randy Pausch passed away this morning. He was 47.

A gift in today's snail mail

A few weeks back I letter arrived to me via the Christian Science Monitor from a tutor out in Palo Alto, California. She wrote to tell me that her eighth-grade pupil, Alex, had used my Monitor story on John Boyd to learn new vocabulary words (six!) and content and style. Her student wanted to know what happened in the election.

I called her the day after I received her letter to tell her that Boyd lost the election, handily, which is when she told me that her student had written a short essay based on my story. While it's certainly flattering to have a grown-up tell me they enjoyed reading my story, I find it awesome indeed that I received such praise from a 14-year-old boy. Cooler still is that my article was used educationally. 

So I asked her if she would be kind enough to send me a copy. She did along with this short, handwritten letter:

Dear Wendy, 
Sorry to be so long getting back to you! I went to my tutoring student's file (Alex) & found I did have the article and his essay! I have sent him a letter with your kind and timely response and info. I was thrilled with your call—so thanks. This makes it all so real for my student. God bless journalists who write or call back. You are a rare but wonderful breed.
Gratefully,
Julie Freeman, CSM reader

And here is Alex's essay based on the story. 

Prison to City Council Profile
This article is about a man named John A. Boyd and a place called Cleveland, Ohio, Ward 6. John A. Boyd is running for Cleveland City Council, except he's been convicted of 2nd degree murder, theft, and forgery, as well as possession of drugs.

Ward 6 is mentioned often in this article. Although it has prestigious museums and clinics, it also has many poor areas. One of the reasons Boyd is running is because he wants to help Ward 6. He says that because he had no relationship with his father, he ended up doing the things that brought him into prison.

Now, Boyd is a social worker running against the current councilwoman Mamie Mitchell. Although he has fewer supporters, he has inspired many, despite his record. He may be behind, but he could get supporters and be elected.

The article does a good job of showing the conditions that cause bad decisions. It also shows both sides of the debate if he can hold office. I thought this article was interesting to read. It is amazing how people can turn their lives around.

Can't think of a better way to end an extraordinarily hectic week.

Moyers 'Journal' comes to Slavic Village

Did you see Bill Moyers' program on the latest financial disaster? "You can see the whole picture in one neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio," says Moyers. 

Here's a link to the video. 

Zelda on Scott

I love reading the letters of writers. I think they contain some of their best, most heartfelt work. And they reveal much about the inner workings of the writer's heart, soul and brain. I have a copy of "The Real F. Scott Fitzgerald," by Sheilah Graham that contains some moving letters from the end of his life.  Here is a passage from a letter from Zelda Fitzgerald to Scott's family following his death in 1940.

"So many years have passed since summers lost themselves in the green valley of White Bear [Minnesota] and time floated immutable and eternal above the blue sleek surface of the lake. …Always we hoped to some day be able to offer testimonial to the courtesies that were extended us; from so many kind hearts, in so many lonesome places. … Now that [Scott] won't be coming east again with his pockets full of promises and his notebooks full of schemes and new refurbished hope, life doesn't offer as happy a vista. … Life has a way of closing its books as soon as one's category is fulfilled; and I suppose the time has come. … If when things have resolved themselves more tangibly, I want to know how to find my way about the bread-line, I will write you — Don't forget me."

'60 Minutes' was riveting last night

Most Sunday nights I may hear a bit of CBS's "60 Minutes" while I'm cleaning up the kitchen or folding laundry or tending to any of a number of household chores. It's my husband's favorite news program and, after making Sunday night dinner, he watches faithfully every week. Last night, I saw the story teasers and decided to sit down to watch with him.

I'm glad I did because the stories were riveting and incredibly diverse, not something that usually can be said about network news. What's amazing is that these stories were rebroadcast from earlier this spring, but we must have missed that week.

The story out of Darfur was chilling, compelling and challenging. We're in bed with the Sudanese government for intel info so we've looked the other way at the genocide occuring there. Is that intelligence worth the extermination of an entire region of people?

The Kanzius Machine was an amazing look at how some people see solutions when most others see problems. A retired businessman and radio technician suffering from leukemia, John Kanzius sought to find a better treatment for cancer involving no side effects. He may be on to something that uses radio waves and metallic nanoparticles to destroy cancer cells. I hope the funding builds and he lives to see his invention work on humans.

Finally, what an uplifting and inspirational story out of Venezuela about the National Youth Orchestra and El Sistema (The System), which teaches and saves impoverished Venezuelan children through classical music from very young ages. This kind of unusual approach to poverty is life-changing and I'm sure could be replicated here in the United States.

UPDATE: Latest Monitor story: Father of the halogen bulb

My latest story ran in yesterday's Christian Science Monitor, but I'm so out of whack without my laptop that I forgot to check and forgot to post. Readers of CI may recall I was disappointed by the PD's story on Elmer Fridrich a few weeks ago. After blogging about that, I heard from the inventor's daughter and a man working with him on marketing his latest inventions. They invited me to come meet Fridrich, so I fired off a pitch to the Monitor. Their reply: "a big yes!"

Check out my story, "The tinkerer's literal light bulb of discovery was halogen." There was so much more to this guy and there's a business opportunity waiting for some smart investor who realizes how far ahead of the curve Mr. Fridrich is working.

For those of you who hate the greenish-bluish light of compact flourescent bulbs, but keep them in your lamps because you want to be "green," his latest invention of a twin-bulb halogen that reduces the cost to manufacture halogen bulbs could be music to your ears.

Fridrich performed an experiment with me that demonstrates the different quality of light between compact flourescents and halogens. Take a CD, stand about 10 feet from the light source. Using the bottom side of the CD, angle it up to capture the light spectrum. When you do this using a halogen, you'll see a smooth rainbow of color that reflects the entire spectrum. When you do this with a compact flourescent, you'll see a broken line of color that is heavy on the greens and blues. Give it a try.

Heard in the library
The library has been a very busy place this week, which is totally cool as far as I'm concerned. Couldn't help but overhear a guy asking to post a notice on the vestibule bulletin board. He's starting a Westlake/Bay Village Observer site just like the Lakewood Observer and the Heights Observer. "The reason we're doing this is there's nothing in the paper that's important to citizens of this area," he said. "We all know things happen, but nothing gets reported." I'll be interested to see how this citizen venture develops.

Speaking of citizen ventures
Have you heard about the proposed Northeast Ohio Citizens League? Fellow Bay Village resident Mike Gesing is working hard to make this happen in Northeast Ohio. If you're interested in hearing more (and I hope you are), shoot me an e-mail and I'll send you a newsletter based on the initial meeting held last week.

Mac update
I had an appointment yesterday at 5:40 at The Apple Store at Legacy Village to talk with someone at the "Genius Bar" about my hard drive. I thought this would be a simple process. It took me 20 minutes to get from I-271 exit to Legacy Village, which is what, a mile! The parking lot was positively crammed with cars so I parked in the boonies, which is fine because I like to walk when I can. And then I walked into The Apple Store, which was positively crammed with people. I waited 45 minutes to have someone look at my laptop, only to be told that it may take 7-10 days to get the repairs done. ARRGGHHH! I was reassured that it was a "quick" fix, so hopefully I'll get it back sooner. I feel like a nomad right now.

My time is almost up on the computer. Gotta fly...

UPDATE/ADDITION
I know I've probably used this quote before, but it's a good one and always make me smile.

"It's none of their business that you have to learn how to write.
Let them think you were born that way." Ernest Hemingway

Back Up, Back Up, Back Up!

Seriously, how many times do we have to be told to back up our computers? And how many times do we get lulled into thinking all is well? That happened to me this week. My MacBook hard drive crashed. I'm OK with having to get the new hard drive, but I think it's been several months since I backed up my drive on an external drive. That may not seem like a long time, but in the career of a writer, it represents hundreds of thousands of words in note and story form.

Fortunately, I have most of the articles as attachments in gmail. But the note files are a big loss indeed. So are the photos, the few that I bother to take these days.

My oldest son is mourning his 800 songs on iTunes. His iPod was stolen from the locker room at school this spring so he doesn't have a back up on all of them. He does have some of his latest favorites on CD.

Can't ever seem to learn this lesson enough. Now I'm gonna upgrade to Tiger OS so I can get the automatic backups.

Obama on writing--and reading

Hattip to Mother Reader for posting this:

"There was one question in particular of interest to us book lovers, and
that came from a woman who asked what Obama would say to young writers. He was
surprised by the question, which he admitted was one he hadn’t heard before, but
didn’t hesitate to answer. He referenced his two books, and specifically
mentioned how he wrote them himself, along with many of his speeches. With a
light inflection, he said, “In terms of getting a job, knowing how to write is a
good thing.” He talked about how he kept a journal, and how it was important for
teaching him not only how to write, but also how to think. But my favorite part
was when he said, “Over the course of four years I made time to read all of the
Harry Potter books out loud to my daughters. If I can do that and run for
president, then you can find time to read to your kids. That’s some of the most
special time you have with your children.”

On another unrelated note, my MacBook crashed this morning and I'm working here and there out of the library. I hate these clunky Dell keyboards. No other choice, though. Pray, pray that repairs are not too expensive and I've not lost too much since my last backup. UGGHHH!

A good writer is...

"A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind." — Isaac Bashevis Singer

Blooms from my garden

Aren't these blooms gorgeous? I do not possess a green thumb. Any success I've had in gardening is purely accidental. Generally at this point in the summer, my garden looks more neglected than thriving. But the rainy summer seems to be doing wonders.

For the first time in three years (since I planted it, actually) my hydrangea bloomed. The amount of iron in the soil determines the color of the blossoms. We must have quite the mix because the blooms range from a pale pink to lavender, sometimes in the same blossom.

The rose is a Queen Elizabeth rose and I planted it probably eight or 10 years ago. It's always seemed to struggle. But the blooms are magnificently rich in color and the stems appear to be long.

Thought I'd share this tableau on my bedside table.

Operation Halyard story is a must-see

My good friend and Toledo television reporter, Jennifer Boresz reported a wonderful feature-length piece that aired on July 4 on WTOL, the CBS affiliate in Toledo. It's hard for local broadcasters to get meaty assignments, but Jen put a great deal of work into this piece that aired on the station's 5 o'clock show. Hope you'll take a minute (or five) to watch.

I've been a friend and mentor of Jen's since she was a student at Cleveland State University five years ago so I'm very proud of her work. Keep pushing to do the stories that feed your soul, Jen!

Tears for Tricia

Yesterday afternoon we learned that a wonderfully vibrant, loving, beautiful, fun woman passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. Tricia Riley was 41 years old. Our prayers this week are for her husband, Jim, and her children, Kelly, Ian and Maeve.

Her spirit touched so many of us and we are sad to lose a dear friend. A scene keeps playing in my head in continuous video loop. Kelly and Ryan were in first grade. It was the Mother's Day Tea and the kids had made a video, one of those tearjerkers. It was in slow motion to the soundtrack of Louis Armstrong's, "What a Wonderful World." The video fades out with Tricia's lovely daughter signing and mouthing, "I love you," to her mom. There wasn't a dry eye in the classroom, especially Tricia's. Our tears are for her lovely life, a life ended too soon.

We love you, Tricia. You've touched our hearts forever. May your grace and love steady us over the coming weeks.

And the top job goes to....?

...Another guy.

Yep, that's right. Women are remarkably absent from any discussion of replacements for Leonard Downie or Meet the Press or NBC Washington Bureau Chief . The ME of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has announced his resignation, so I wonder what names will circulate to replace him?

I have no problem with men holding powerful positions in journalism. I have a problem with them holding virtually ALL the powerful positions in journalism. If you want to know why our mainstream news coverage resembles a middle-aged white guy, you need look no further than the newsrooms of most major newspapers.

As it happens Len Downie, a hometown boy, happens to be one of the greatest editors of one of the greatest newspapers. I would have worked for him in a heartbeat. You don't get 25 Pulitzers without fostering a sense of possibility, creativity and high expectations in a newsroom. Likewise, Jim Amoss at the New Orleans Times-Picayune is another I'd work for in a snap because of his commitment to fulfilling the promise of the press as a watchdog for the public.

But seriously...how far do newspapers in particular have to decline before news organizations start looking a little differently at who is at the helm? This isn't an anti-guy rant, but more an anti-establishment rant. You know the old definition of insanity? Yeah, well, I think it applies to newspapers by the bucket loads.

Check out the numbers: According to the American Society of Newspaper Editors 2006 census: 38 percent of journalists working in daily newspapers are women; 65 percent of all supervisors are men.

Only 3 percent of women hold clout positions in journalism, according to the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

All this is despite the fact that women have been the majority of college journalism majors since 1977. (Ah, yep, that would include me.)

AN-ND... newspapers that enjoy growth from innovation and development are more likely to have a diverse set of leaders at the top.

But, hey, we don't pull our weight, right? Women correspondents report ONLY 25 percent of the stories on television, and women comprise 25 percent of contributors to "general interest" magazines.



Maybe THAT'S why we leave journalism in droves. Or maybe it's because the longer we work in this business the less we get paid compared to our male counterparts.

These statistics are helpfully gathered at McCormick Foundation's New Media Women Entrepreneurs, where they encourage and yes reward us for our knack with new media, social networks and our broader network of contacts and insatiable curiosity.

C'mon! We've got the data, now let's do something about it. And then maybe we can stop mourning for what was and start reaching for what's next.

Where to begin...

Apologies for the dearth of any meaningful posts here of late. I could say I've been too busy, because I have. It's been quite a frenzied month of story assignments, project beginnings, projects ending, projects hopefully getting underway. It's all good and I feel very blessed, indeed. But there's a good amount of hard work involved.

In addition to my regular features for the Catholic Universe Bulletin, I've also just completed work as part of a team of copy editors on the Kovel's Antiques & Collectibles Price List 2009, published by Black Dog & Leventhal. The massive guide will be published later this year.

Yesterday morning, I finalized a 10,000-word narrative on my three years of reporting and observing the small school transformation at Cleveland Heights High School. This year's work was particularly rich since I spent the year following the principal of one small school. Latching on to great characters makes the work highly enjoyable. But cutting and crafting the words is always a challenge. That work will be published by KnowledgeWorks Foundation in September.

You may have noticed the new publication RiseUp, which debuted as a magazine insert in newspapers across the country on Sunday (though not here in Cleveland). I wrote a feature story for that publication (I believe it will be in Sunday's issue. I'll link to it here.) and as a result have five more assignments that will keep me busy for most of the rest of the summer.

I'm working on my third feature for the Christian Science Monitor (running in mid-July). I especially enjoy the multimedia approach to this publication, which is always a great experience.

A market report I wrote for ASJA Monthly magazine was just published (sorry, I can't share publicly, members only). And my favorite pal and I are anxiously awaiting news on a grant that could lead to some very exciting work.

I'm also doing a different kind of writing (search engine optimization) for the Web and have completed work on one site (very fun and launching soon) and will begin work on another next week. This writing style is a nice break from the heavily reported pieces I've been working on.

So if I've been remiss in writing, I hope you'll understand. Gotta strike while the iron's hot. Look here for links to published work in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I'll try to do better with my posting.

Happy Summer!

Merton and the influence of books

In 1963, a reporter from the San Francisco Examiner sent a questionnaire to Thomas Merton. Here were the questions and Merton's responses as found in, "Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing," edited by Robert Inchausti.

1. Name the last three books you have read.

The Platform Scripture of Hui Neng, translated by Wing Tsit Chan
The Proslogion by St. Anselm of Canterbury
A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley

2. Name the books you are reading now.

Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture by John Huizinga
Ratio Verae Theologiae (The Real Meaning of Theology) by Erasmus
The Historian and Character by David Knowles

3. Books you intend to read.

Apology to the Iroquois by Edmund Wilson
The Silent Rebellion: Anglican Religious Communities, 1845-1900 by A.M. Allchin
Cur Deus Homo by St. Anselm of Canterbury

4. Books that have influenced you.

Poetic Works of William Blake
Plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles
Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas
Sermons of Meister Eckhart
De Doctrina Christiana, Confessions, and Sermons on Psalms of St. Augustine
Rule of St. Benedict
The Bhagavad-Gita
The Imitation of Christ, etc.

5. Why have these books been an influence on you?

These books and others like them have helped me to discover the real meaning of my life, and have made it possible for me to get out of the confusion and meaninglessness of an existence completely immersed in the needs and passivities fostered by a culture in which sales are everything.

6. Name a book everyone should read.

Besides the Bible (taken for granted and not included above) and such classics as The Imitation of Christ, I would select a contemporary book which I consider to be of vital importance and which I think everyone should read at this time: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin.

7. Why this book?

This is the most forceful statement about a crisis that is of immediate importance to every American, and indirectly affects the whole world today. It is something that people have to know about. The Negro has been trying to make himself heard: in this book he succeeds.

Food for thought, eh? How about you? How would you answer those seven questions?

Get that boy a J-O-B

"You're young, you've got your health. What you want with a job?" — Raising Arizona

Every summer of my teenage existence there would be a day when for no obvious reason (to me and my siblings anyway) my mom would be highly agitated by our physical presence. If you listened closely (which we often didn't), she could be heard uttering things like, "This isn't a flop house." "There are chores to be done." "Go find something to do." "Get a job!"

We're only into the second week of summer and I've already experienced sluggish teens lying around and generally causing agitation both to me and their youngest brother (who seems to have no trouble occupying himself).

Chained to cells phones, texting and a steady diet of ESPN, they seem to be waiting for something to happen, though what exactly is anybody's guess. Middle son does a better job of getting out of the house, except that he seems to do so before having done his chores. In fact, he's quite stealthy in his ways. I'll either be on the phone or deep in thought working on something when he quietly mouths, "Mom, I'm going to Chris's house." I'll wave him away (as in I can't talk about this now) and he takes my wave as tacit approval to disappear.

I look in his room and there sits a basket full of clean laundry, an unmade bed and blinds that have yet to be opened. The basement (which we refer to as his apartment) will have cups and wrappers from the previous night's snacking strewn about. Oy! Thankfully, he's only a cell phone call away.

I've come to the realization that my oldest needs a J-O-B. His early mornings are filled with working out for football. His evenings are for fun and hanging with friends. But he's spent most afternoons flopped on the couch in front of ESPN Classic, watching old college football games.

The problem is, he's only 15 1/2. Were he 16, all sorts of employment options would be available. But this age thing is a real problem. I'll admit, I've been somewhat torn about insisting he work. After all, he has the rest of his life to work. Youth is so fleeting. But he wants money and he needs something to do. Plus he's starting driving and gas is expensive. So we're getting that work permit.

I am forever preaching "resourcefulness" as a virtue and to his credit, oldest found a job nearby that will give him some cash at least until school begins. And the important thing is that it not be a pain in the butt for me, which it isn't because he knows other kids who work there and can provide rides.

Once football is over and he turns 16 then we can reassess his job opportunities. But right now a little bit of something is better than afternoons of nothing.

UB story: Paging Father Art

My latest story in the UB is on Father Art Snedeker, the chaplain at MetroHealth Medical Center. My mom, who works in the Rammelkamp Center for Education and Research, remembers Father Art coming to visit her when she was a cancer patient at Metro. (Photo by Bill Reiter)

Paging Father Art

MetroHealth Chaplain helps critical patients
imagine their way to healing

By Wendy A. Hoke

CLEVELAND-The burn unit on the fifth floor of MetroHealth’s near west side campus is quiet today. As Father Art Snedecker, the Catholic chaplain, enters the unit he walks past the nurse’s station when his pager goes off. He turns to use the phone and check in on a patient. After a brief call, all is well—for now.

Snedecker is the chaplain for all the hospital’s critical care units, including patients and staff, and administers to its many Catholic patients.

Lynne Yurko, nurse manager of the burn unit, is standing nearby and smiles when she sees him coming down the hallway. “He is our priest, friend and colleague,” she says. “We laugh together and cry together and when something awful or evil happens, we pray together,” she says.

His presence fosters a peaceful environment in this critical care unit where stress levels frequently run very high.

“Father Art,” as his ID badge says, has been part of the hospital’s multi-disciplinary team for 10 years, and it’s a position that mixes his love of Christ and the power of prayer in healing with the miracles of modern medicine.

His presence has become so important to the burn unit that he, Yurko and three physicians conducted research on the role his pastoral care plays in reducing pain and anxiety in burn patients.

Using prayer, pastoral counseling, guided imagery (the use of rhythmic breathing and visualization) and breath of God (imagining the spirit of God entering them as they breathe), researchers found a significant decrease in both pain and anxiety for patients regardless of gender or faith community affiliation.

The work of guided imagery grew out of Father Snedecker’s work with a 15-year-old burn patient a number of years ago. “This boy had a high degree of pain and anxiety and was under sedation. He should not have remembered anything. But he ran with the image of being at a lake and fishing. In between expletives he would talk about the weather, the day, the clouds, the sky. What was so incredible was when he came out of sedation he wanted to apologize for his language. He should not have even remembered it,” he says, because of the heavy medications.

The therapy worked as Father Snedecker knew it would.

When he was in seminary in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Father Snedecker would have reflection retreats in which he was asked to picture himself sitting at a table with Jesus. “What’s he wearing? Is he smiling? Can you look into his eyes? What is he saying?”

Daydreaming and the process of sighing or expelling a deep breath is the body’s natural release of stress. That’s what Father Snedecker uses to empower patients in their own healing. “It’s as powerful as a person’s imagination and as intimate as their breath.”

In hindsight his path seems very clear.

Father Snedecker had always wanted to become a doctor. He was an orderly at Parma General Hospital and entered Bowling Green State University as a pre-med major. But after he entered college he received a different calling and chose instead to enter the seminary.

After his ordination, he was given a choice to pursue campus ministry or hospital chaplaincy. One night while sitting outside the chapel at Parma Hospital, he prayed for guidance. “I said no to chaplaincy and as I was driving away I wondered why I did that.

“Looking back I think I was too young and didn’t have enough life experience,” he says.

After years as a campus minister and then a parish priest, he suffered a heart attack and, at age 48, required open-heart surgery.

“I knew I needed to make lifestyle changes and I knew I’d been given a second chance,” he says. Against the advice of friends, he resigned as pastor of Immaculate Conception in Akron, and it wasn’t long after that former Bishop Anthony Pilla asked if he’d consider being a hospital chaplain.

What began as a temporary assignment became much more from the first moment Father Snedecker, now 60, set foot on MetroHealth. “As soon as I walked in the doors, I fell in love with the place. God blesses Metro because it cares for the poor,” he says.

“I learned very early on that I couldn’t do this alone. Every unit of the hospital operates as a team in caring for the patient. The work is not mine alone because Christ is here with me.”

The job remains tough because he faces not only trauma and tragedy, but also acts of evil at times. “My faith has been challenged, but also rewarded and I am a richer person for having this work in my life.”

Hoke is a freelance writer.

Has blogging changed your journalism?

Take a survey here.

Paul Bradshaw of Online Journalism Blog and Birmingham City University in England is compiling research on the topic. Take a few minutes to help him out.

Busy, busy; thanks, but no thanks; Copper Cup closed; and summer arrives

My backlog of posts I'd like to write is growing hourly. Of course I'll never get to half of them. As I told someone recently, I could write a post on the things I meant to write a post about. But a steady stream of deadlines has kept me hopping and otherwise committed. I'll try to get something halfway thoughtful posted later this week based on an event I attended last week, especially since it wasn't covered in the news.

Over the weekend I was daydreaming to my hubby how I'd love to take off the entire month of July. A month of playtime in the summer would be just enough to recharge the batteries. After that I'd be itching to get back to work. But with college looming in three years, such a break is unlikely.

Thanks, but no
Here's an open question: How is an anonymous $2 million gift to keep open one of the city's most vibrant parishes, which is spiritually and financially strong, deemed "inappropriate" by the Diocese? Disclosure #1: I attend St. Peter's Church from time to time and was at Sunday's Mass when the Parish Council made its report. I've been spiritually nourished by the parish's adult education series, including RCIA classes. Disclosure #2: The PD story quotes Robert Zack, who is a close family friend and used to be my boss years ago at Avenues magazine. Disclosure #3: I am a regular contributor to the Catholic Universe Bulletin, the diocesan newspaper. Disclosure #4: Bob Tayek, the diocesan spokesman, and I served on the local SPJ board together back in the early 1990s.

Copper Cup closed?
As a Bay Village resident, I am most loyal to Bob and Lisa Lowrie, proprietors of Java Bay. But I can't work there because there's a steady stream of people I know and there's no wireless. Just over the tracks on Dover Center Road in Westlake was the Copper Cup, which did offer free wireless in a fairly quiet beautiful setting. Unfortunately, it's closed right now and that's unfortunate for the legions of West Shore folks who worked there. But then again, one wonders how it can survive when a customer spends four hours and buys only a $2 cup of coffee. Hmmm...

Summer—and heat—arrive simultaneously
We just turned our furnace off a few weeks ago. I'm already sick and tired of having the house closed up with the A/C. I'd like to open the windows and smell the peonies in bloom.

We're headed back to the ortho today for a new, short, hopefully waterproof cast. This heat, humidity and a two-week-old cast = YUCK! Five days into summer vacation, we have yet to hit the pool. That has to be some kind of record.

Word of the day
vibrant: pulsating with life, vigor, or activity

"We are already one"

And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.

— Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal

Foreclosure story has long legs

I never know where my stories will turn up. It's a bit disconcerting as I try to ascertain whether or not copyright has been violated. I'll share an example: Last night I was Googling myself (it's a good practice to get into regularly if you write for living) and found my latest Christian Science Monitor story on foreclosure bus tour turning up in all sorts of places. They go from simple links or blurbs (which is cool) to out and out reprints (which I'm not sure is cool).

Here's what I found:

Northeast Ohio River: A stream of posts from Northeast Ohio blogs

Seeking Alpha

World Hum: Travel Dispatches from a shrinking planet (a Travel Channel blog)

Sarasota Herald-Tribune Creating Spaces blog

Axcess News: News for the X Generation (a full reprint with credit to CSM but no permission)

Sedona.biz: Will full reprint and photos and no permission from CSM

Topix.com: Solon Wire

Foreclosure O.N.E.

The Simple Family

Digg

Business.com: With many listings from above

But then I also received an e-mail from an American living in Iran who wrote a lengthy note demonstrating the power of the Web. A writer from Cleveland publishes a story in a Boston-based newspaper that is eventually read on the news ticket of Yahoo Iran!

Go figure!

'To bury the dead' wins first place in features

The Catholic Press Association announced the winners of its 2008 editorial contest this past weekend and I just learned this afternoon that my story, "To bury the dead" about the Joseph of Arimathea Society at St. Ignatius High School won first place in features category. Complete results of the contest are available as PDF.

Here's what the judges had to say:

"This story delivered a strong sense of place and purpose. The writer provided keen insight into this unusual ministry, telling the story of the living while paying reverence to the dead. It was also an easy, inviting read. The story is worthy of first place for more than a single reason."

Here's a link to the story. I want to acknowledge and thank photographer Bill Rieter for his great work on this and the many other stories we've worked on together. He does a fantastic job of quickly recognizing the kind of story I'm trying to tell and definitely added to the telling of this important story.

It's important to recognize the young men at St. Ignatius High School who give of their time so unselfishly to perform one of the great honors on this earth—carrying a person to their final resting place. Thank you, gentlemen, for letting me tag along and tell your story.

In Friday's UB: Vatican Splendors and St. John's Bible

I'm a bit behind in my postings, but here are links and copies of two of my stories from Friday's Catholic Universe Bulletin.

Vatican Splendors

Exhibit a celebration of art, culture, Christianity and history

By Wendy A. Hoke

In the first century of the Common Era, during the time of Christ, there’s a legend that says King Abgar of Edessa in modern day Turkey had an incurable sickness. Hearing of the miracles of Jesus, he wrote to him asking for his help.

Jesus wrote back saying he could not come to Edessa, located in the Euphrates River basin in the cradle of civilization known as Mesopotamia. But he promised that when he ascended to heaven, he would send a disciple to heal Abgar. Before he died Jesus pressed his face into a rectangular piece of cloth and after he died, did indeed send one of his disciples to Abgar with the cloth.

“The Mandylion of Edessa” as the cloth is known today, is believed to be the earliest image of Christ and is one of the historic and spiritual treasures that await visitors to “Vatican Splendors,” an exhibition opening May 31 at the Western Reserve Historical Society and presented locally by the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums of Ohio, Inc.

The tour commemorates the 500th anniversary of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the founding of the Vatican Museums, Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel, and the establishment of the Papal Swiss Guard.

“Visitors will have access to objects that have never before been seen in public and many that have never been outside of Rome,” says Mark Greenberg, president of Evergreen Exhibitions, which is producing the exhibition. Even if you go to Rome, you probably won’t get to see these items because many are not on public display.

Cleveland is the middle of only three stops on the tour that also includes St. Petersburg, Fla., and St. Paul, Minn. “Cleveland has such a strong Catholic community,” explains Greenberg. “We needed a venue with the experience to handle the size, security, handling and environmental controls of such an exhibition.”

Evergreen, the Vatican Office of Liturgical Celebrations and the curator of the Vatican Museums were convinced of the Western Reserve Historical Society’s capabilities following the success of the Princess Diana exhibition.

“Vatican Splendors” is designed to move visitors through galleries that illustrate the early church through to the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

Along with the Edessa image, the reliquary containing the venerated bones of St. Peter and architectural drawings of the original St. Peter Basilica built by the Roman Emperor Constantine represent the early church. The exhibition moves through time all the way to the ballot boxes and white-smoke canisters from the most recent papal election, giving visitors—both Catholic and non-Catholic—a glimpse of the church’s 2,000-year-old history.

While we don’t worship objects, many are sacramental, explains Father David Novak, pastor of St. Stanislaus and Holy Trinity parishes in Lorain and chairman of the board of the Museum of the Diocese of Cleveland. “We don’t worship water and yet we revere it as holy because it’s used as a way to communicate God’s grace and His love of the world,” he says.

The same can be said of the objects and art on exhibition here—objects that celebrate the great mysteries of life, death and resurrection.

“These objects say something about who we are and reflect our story as member of the Catholic church,” says Novak.

The art here reflects more craft than science and nowhere is that more evident than in the simple instrument of Michelangelo’s genius—a compass. The crude-looking instrument, says Greenberg, allowed for the construction of amazing buildings that reflect symmetry sometimes referred to as the sacred geometry.

With the televised death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the exhibition will feature actual items from that process, including Swiss Guard uniforms and weaponry, and the ballot boxes and white-smoke canisters from the actual election.

The stories of the popes’ travels in the world are reflected through ancient maps of North America, China and Africa, and the gifts of a Thanka by the Dalai Lama and a wooden Tree of Life sculpture from Africa.

Church history is filled with stories of and the events that changed history and rearranged countries, such as the tiara given by Napoleon Bonaparte to Pope Pius VII, which was made from jewels stolen from the Vatican and featuring one of the world’s largest emeralds. Although it is spectacular in its detail, it also was made too small to wear, which was considered a veiled insult to the pope.

Aside from representing the church’s longstanding history in the world, “Vatican Splendors” also reminds us of the influence of the Vatican’s patronage on art and culture.

And it gives Catholics a way to remember and celebrate the alternating magistry and simplicity of a faith shaped by world history.

“Vatican Splendors” will be open through September 7, 2008 and on Monday-Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. Last admission is at 7 p.m.; Thursday-Sunday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Last admission is at 5 p.m. The Western Reserve Historical Society is located at 10825 East Boulevard, (in University Circle). The Western Reserve Historical Society parking lot is located off of Magnolia Drive. Visit www.wrhs.org, or call 216-721-5722. For advance group discount information and reservations, contact sales@ TicketsForGroups.com or call 800-840-1157.

St. John's Bible illuminates the word of God for our time

By Wendy A. Hoke

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS—St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., is essentially a train stop, a modern campus that marks time by the rhythm of the monks who call the abbey home.

Just an hour from the Twin Cities, it also is home to a spectacular work of art. For the first time in 500 years, the Benedictines of St. John’s Abbey have collaborated on a handwritten and illuminated bible known as the St. John’s Bible.

If your summer travel plans don’t include a trip to the Twin Cities, you can head over to John Carroll University, where just inside the Grasselli Library is a copy of the Wisdom Books of the St. John’s Bible, a gift from Target Corp., in honor of retired Target Executive Vice President John Pellegrene, a North Canton native and John Carroll alumnus.

The oversized Bible is rich with imagery from a craft that dates to the ancient world, when manuscripts were on scrolls of papyrus, according to Joseph Kelly, professor of religious studies at John Carroll University. By the Eighth and Ninth centuries, Benedictine monasteries of the west, under the patronage of the Emperor Charlemagne, began writing and illuminating not just sacred works, but also secular works such as love songs.

Near the end of the Middle Ages, however, capitalism and the need for a literate public led to more widespread printing of books. Illuminated manuscripts were left to history.

But in the early 1970s, Donald Jackson—senior illuminator to the Queen of England’s Crown Office—appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show” where host Barbara Walters asked him about his life’s dream. His response? “I would like to write the Bible.”

Later he would describe his dream as, “The calligraphic artist’s supreme challenge (our Sistine Chapel), a daunting task.”

Sharing his life’s dream on national television brought him to the attention of St. John’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery with the largest collection of manuscripts in the world—10 million images and 2 million manuscripts, according to Craig Bruner, director of operations, The St. John’s Bible.

Jackson was the main attraction at the first calligraphy conference held at St. John’s in 1984. During an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, he reiterated his desire to write the Bible, something Abbey community kept in mind as the relationship between them continued.

In the mid-1990s, in preparation for a millennium project, Father Eric Hollas of St. John’s asked Jackson over lunch if he would make the word of God live on the page.

“Do you want it?” he asked.

The answer was unequivocally yes. Jackson and St. John’s Abbey would illuminate the St. John’s Bible—a celebration of books, the book arts and religion.

Video accounts on St. John’s Web site show Jackson using the ancient practice of preparing his Quill, stripping its feathers and mixing his inks with egg yolks for lasting color.

In March 2000, the first words were penned.

In the beginning was the Word,

And the Word was with God,

And the Word was God.

Brother Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, describes the frontispiece as, “The word of God striding out of cosmic time into the world we live in.”

When complete in late 2009 or early 2010, the entire St. John’s Bible will comprise seven volumes—Pentateuch, Wisdom Books, Psalms, Prophets, Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, Historical Writings and Letters and Revelation, according to Bruner.

In all, the St. John’s Bible will contain 1,160 pages and 160 illuminations. While the originals will be housed at St. John’s on permanent exhibition, reproductions like the one at John Carroll will travel the world.

While the text is rooted in history, using ancient methods, it is also very much a product of its time, according to Kelly.

“When medieval scribes were writing and illuminating the Bible, they wrote and illuminated what they knew—flora, fauna and people around them,” says Bruner. “It was modern to them just as the illuminations in the St. John’s Bible reflect the flora, fauna and life of people today.”

In the opening to Matthew with the genealogy of Christ, the illuminations feature the double helix of DNA embedded in the manuscript. “That locates this work in the 21st century, because that’s when human genome project was completed,” says Bruner.

The books are more a work of art than scholarly text, but Bruner says the original will be used liturgically for Christmas, Easter, graduation and other major celebrations.

And there’s a hope the reproductions, which will make their way around the world, will ignite spiritual imaginations.

“We’re trying to make a statement about faith and the importance of art and imagination,” says Brother Reinhart in a video about the project. “The fact that there’s common ground for us to stand on in a world torn apart by violence and hatred and it’s to be found in the sacred texts that enliven and enrich all cultures on this planet.”

Visit www.saintjohnsbible.org for information, photos and video of the project.

Hoke is a freelance writer.

Materials used in the original St. John’s Bible

The original Bible is made on calfskin vellum, specifically prepared for writing. The reproductions are made on 100 percent cotton archival paper.

Inks used include lapis lazuli, 24-karat gold leaf and 100-year-old Chinese black inks made from candle soot.

The gold leaf is decades old and made by hammering pieces of gold flat until it is foil thickness. Calligraphers use a substance called gesso—white lead, fish glue and plaster—that they paint on and let it dry. Using a small tube in their mouth they blow on the gesso to warm it up and create a surface glue that they put the foil on. Using a burnisher, (a stone mounted on a wood handle) the calligrapher rubs the foil, making it permanent.

PD gets a good story on page 1

Since I'm often disappointed by what I find in The Plain Dealer, I thought I would take a second to report that I was pleasantly surprised by one of today's front-page stories. (I won't even begin to tell you how much time I wasted on cleveland.com searching for the story. I had to Google Brian's name to find the link.)

I first wrote about Brian Mauk and his work with the homeless for the Catholic Universe Bulletin. What struck me was that Brian's name kept coming up in so many others stories I worked on—about missions, corporal acts of mercy and social justice. So I'm delighted to see that his work will continue and with funding from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute of Delaware. Congratulations and good luck, Brian. Let us know how we can help.

The front page of the business section also had a unique feature by Frank Bentayou on Elmer Fridrich, the guy who invented the halogen bulb. This I consider an "almost" story because it skirted around being a great story, but didn't quite dance. It lacked so many details that would have made it more a rich narrative and less a news story.

What do I mean by this? There's no tension in the story. Let's get to know Mr. Fridrich. Describe him (I know there's a photo, but I want to know about his hands or the sharpness of mind), give me a scene (describe his surroundings--number of screwdrivers, lamps hanging from the ceiling, stuff that would give a housing inspector heartburn) and for the love of storytelling, build a scene based on how he came up with his ideas. What does he sound like? How does he talk about his work? Where does he get his inspiration? Let's hear a little less about how the bulb works and little more about the man behind its creation.

Who says narrative doesn't belong on the business pages? Some of the greatest stories told are about inventors and their inventions. If you're going to donate that many column inches, then let's have a good yarn.