MMMM # 125 Media Heroes (and NOT)

      Twice in recent days, a newspaper employee has turned hero to save lives endangered by fire.

      Last Tuesday, it was a Huntsville Times newspaper delivery guy with fire department experience who won praise because he woke up a family and called 911 to report a fire in the home.

    And on December 21st, a newspaper photographer for the Press-Register in Mobile spotted a motel on fire and alerted the desk clerk and knocked on doors to wake up guests.

     The incidents reminded me of what happened in Anniston in 1983, when a man set himself on fire as a TV crew filmed him. He later filed a lawsuit against the TV station for not stopping him, a suit that was thrown out of court.

     The ethics of the case are still discussed in journalism classes today. We had a short discussion about it in the Electronic News Gathering course I've been teaching at Trenholm State a few weeks ago. A new class begins next week.

     Flip sides of an Alabama media coin, almost thirty years apart.



[ALSO: There's been a settlement in a suit filed over reader comments on a newspaper's web site. The suit was filed a judge, who complained when the paper identified her as the writer of harsh after-story comments about a case she was hearing.]



[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

The Real Cost of Income Inequality

     Nicholas Kristof writes in the NY Times today about the cost to society of steep wealth inequality.

     Now, especially after having recently posted about my limited math skills, I don't want to wade in too deep here, but I went looking for a statistic ranking the states on that subject. and here's what I found:

 

     Other than New York, we here in Alabama, and some of our neighbors, have the widest income inequality in America. Here's the link to the blog that posted the map.

     That blogger writes: the GDP per capita in the US is one of the highest in the world. But more of that wealth is concentrated in the hands of relatively few people, meaning fewer people (relative to that high per capita GDP) are well-off.

    If you look at the criteria cited in Kristof's column---teen pregnancy, drug use, heart disease, violent crime---Alabama certainly have higher rankings than most other states.

    Is it inequality of income, rather than just plain poverty that gives us those grim stats?

Child of Prayer

A friend asked me about my New Year’s Resolutions the other day. “What are your plans and dreams for the upcoming year?”

Plans and dreams... Yes, those are both very good things! God has a plan for my life—for every second of every day I have ever lived and will go on living in this world. And He often communicates His desires to His children through their dreams. So what plans and dreams can I have but His?

What I have for the upcoming year are prayers and one prayer in particular: to become a person of prayer.

I desire to live in constant communion with Him.

Every time my mind wanders to a problem, let it be drawn back to Him in trustful surrender.

When my eyes behold evil, let Him show me the Way, the Truth and Life.

If my heart seizes with fear, let His Love encircle and warm me, bringing more love than I’ve ever known before.

May He be my first thought every morning and may I fall asleep with His Name on my lips.

May He love and protect my dear ones as I would if I could—were I but All Knowing, All Loving and All Good.

May He turn all my sins into opportunities for growth in kindness, humility and patience.

Sweet Jesus, with every breath I take in, let me seek You; with every breath out, may I grow closer to You.

You know LORD what a wretch I am—how far I have to go, how much I ask by daring to pray as I do. And yet, You are the God of the Impossible. With and through You, All Things are possible, even my sanctification.

Help this year be a YEAR OF PRAYER for your servant. Help me seek You at all times, in all ways and without tiring.

Make me Your child of prayer.

Sign of The Times

     Parking meters in the "Loop" in Chicago now costs $5.

     $5 an hour.

     It was already the most expensive meter parking in America, so I suppose Chicago drivers were already used to it.

     One of the niceties of moving from Birmingham to Montgomery a decade ago was being able to a) find a parking spot downtown in the middle of the day and b) be able to toss a nickle or dime into the meter to cover the time it took to run into a bank.

     As I've blogged about before, the first meters installed in Alabama, in Mobile, were the target of vigilantes (We dare defend our rights!) who used axes to take them out, according to a 1950's Reader's Digest article, and The Wall Street Journal reported a major court battle over meters was fought in the Alabama Courts:

 ...in 1937, the Alabama Supreme Court declared Birmingham's parking meters to be an unauthorized exercise of the city's taxing power, and ordered them removed. Other state courts allowed parking meters, but only if their primary purpose was to regulate traffic, not to raise revenue, a distinction that quickly faded in the lean days of the Depression."

     When the meters were installed in Paris, the good citizens of that city burned the building where the traffic authority was located. Or so says a widespread reference online...which I also have not been able to track down.

      Two friends, former Alabamians, now live in Chicago---former Birmingham News cartoonist Scott Stantis and Former Birmingham Radio and TV journalist Steve Sanders. Maybe we should take up a collection?

Country Crossing

     The Dothan Eagle quotes the lawyer for Country Crossing as saying he sees light at the end of the electronic bingo tunnel in recent statements by Governor-elect Robert Bentley.

     Bentley has said he'll let Attorney General Luther Strange handle the task force on gambling, though Bentley had said several times before the election that he would eliminate the task force.

     The lawyer apparently sees reason to believe that Strange will have a different take on the electronic bingo question than Governor Riley did.     

     Sheriff Joe Bennison told CBS-8 last week he was planning to meet with Bentley on Tuesday to work out a solution, presumably one that would allow Greentrack to reopen.

     Will Strange really have a different opinion about the constitutional amendment that allows electronic bingo in Greene County? Or has the entire bingo well beem poisoned by the pending trial of eleven folks on bribery related charges involving a bingo bill?

Miniature Panda Cows

     For real. Not like jackalopes or snipes, these are real small cows bred to have a panda like black and white  pattern around their eyes.

    Read the story and see photos of the newborn in the local newspaper in Loveland Colorado. My favorite quote is about how friendly the breed is:

“Cows are very social animals. They like people. He’ll come into the house eventually.”

     Yea, as a pet, or eventually, as dinner.

     I wonder how sociable they would be if they went for a visit to the local McD's?

     Remember the Twilight Zone episode with the alien book titled To Serve Man.

     Indeed.

Math

      I've been known to say that if I had math skills, I'd be in business making money instead of in journalism. Math has never been a strong subject for me, and I remember coming face-to-face with Algebra the way a child might remember confronting a forest filled with hungry, wild creatures.

     I'm finding slight comfort in knowing that I am not alone.

     A new study finds parents' confidence in their ability to help their kids with math plummets when the kids start taking Middle School math.

     My own math confidence started low even earlier, and stayed there. The only lesson I learned was to fear exams, especially math exams, and I still do.

     Geometry I kinda got, dicing and slicing all of those various shapes made some sense. But Algebra started me down the path of Duhhhhh? And it only got worse after that.

     That study, by the way, compared several countries, and found that parents in Singapore are much more likely to hire tutors to help their kids than U.S. parents, with resulting better grades.

     Like the American kids in the study, I had help from my family, but that only went so far. Left brain/right brain? Whatever.

      My PC and other electronics take care of most of my math needs now, and that's just fine with me. I wonder if I would have had more confidence if I had those tools in school?