future

This blog entry is on point. And gutsy -- it's written by a reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News, which is owned by Knight-Ridder (which also owns our beloved Star), and it actually takes a few smacks at the corporate ownership.

What's great about it is that the fictional part that opens the passage is probably the best prediction I've yet seen about the future of news. And I like it! It looks really cool.

I know I bash on the local paper here quite a bit here, but the truth is, I'm scared to death at the prospect of the Star or any other big daily paper going under. Grumbles aside, these papers still have the the only real institutional heft to carry the Fourth Estate forward in our country. Bloggers can't do it. Alt-weeklies can't do it. And TV news is racist drivel.

So this idea of the "norg" being a converged salon of information where folks can enter from whichever direction they feel comfortable, interact with the info, repackage it, share it with one another -- I think it's exciting.

This Attytood post reads in parts like a manifesto:

We prefer to talk down to the public rather than talk to them. Even at our very best – and there are many, many talented newspaper journalists in America – we are more likely to aim at wooing contest judges than at wooing new readers. And we have a knee-jerk tendency to defend our narrow world of messy ink printed on dead trees, when instead the time is here to redefine who we are and what we do.

We are, and can continue to be, the front-line warriors of information -- serving up the most valuable commodity in a media-driven era. But that means we must be the message, not the medium, and so we must adjust to give consumers news in the high-tech ways that they are asking for, not the old-tech way that we are confortable with.

Damn right!

the last abortion clinic

I was an unplanned pregnancy, pre Roe v. Wade, and I'm happy to be alive. So, on a very superficial level, some of the rhetoric associated with the so-called pro-life movement appeals to me. But I can't get around the hipocracy.

Tonight Allie and I watched Frontline's "The Last Abortion Clinic," about how a seldom discussed Supreme Court decision of 1989 has made it increasingly difficult -- in some cases, almost impossible -- for a growing population of women to choose to have an abortion. The documentary focused on Mississippi, where there's basically just one abortion clinic still in operation. And even that clinic could close its doors early next year.

The show offered lots of interviews with so-called pro-lifers, and it showed them praying outside of the clinic in Jackson. Most of them were men, and I can't recall seeing a black face among them. And I kept thinking, You don't really care about these babies you think you're saving.

After just two minutes of Googling, I found a handful of Mississippi counties where 40 percent of the children live in poverty (that's federally defined poverty, which is artificially low, not actual poverty), and the infant mortality rate is as high as 20 per thousand. Statewide, 24 percent of Mississippi's children live in poverty, the highest rate in the country. Twelve percent live in "extreme poverty."

Mississippi ranks 50th among states (including DC) in per-pupil expenditures on education.

And this:

Mississippi families who pay for care spend an average of 9 percent of earnings on child care. Families with incomes below 200 percent of poverty spend an average of 14 percent of parental earnings, more than the 7 percent of earnings spent by families with incomes at or above 200 percent of poverty.

In Mississippi, at least 41 percent of families with incomes below 200 percent of poverty get some sort of child care help; at least 15 percent have government/organization help and at least 20 percent have all their child care provided free by relatives. The percentage of these families with government/organization help is lower in Mississippi than in the United States as a whole. (Urban Institute)

And, of course, there are lots of kids in Mississippi who are waiting for someone to give them a stable home, as there are in every state.

I'm not necessarily trying to bash Mississippi.

But come on! What are you doing for the kids that are already alive?

In the Frontline show, the Mississippi so-called pro-lifers crowed about these "Pregnancy Crisis Centers" they've established across the state to help poor women deal with their lack of choice. I yelled, "Right on!" at the screen when an anonymous abortion clinic owner addressed these outposts of dubious benevolence.

Right now it seems that the crisis pregnancy centers want to help women have babies, but really offer no real alternatives for women to raise these babies and have no resources truly available to them for the long term.

And again, a woman with children already, some baby clothes and formula and even a stroller isn't going to help for that long. That's just not what's required to raise a child. The whole thing that is really problematic for me is the disconnect between the pre-born and the post-born. I just don't understand that. It seems that so many of these groups, so many of the hardliners, when they say, "I'm pro-life," they mean "I support the pregnancy in utero," in the uterus. But I see so little sustenance and support for women and children, particularly poor women and children. Those are the ones that are castigated and blamed.

kcc

I found this description of Central High on a Xanga site:

teachers threaten your families safety to get you on the debate team, and the scariest person in the building is a 5 foot red-headed white woman with a knack for making you feel like less of a man. also there're like 26 people with the nickname toot. and 90 percent of the female population have 'esha' or 'aunda' or 'shaun' at the end of there name. every other female has slept with [BLANK BLANK]. they confiscate cell phones but let people with knives run rampant. only thirteen percent of the enrolled students show up on any given day, and half of the ones that do are late the other half are leaving early. prison is a guarantee for 7 of the 14 people who graduated last year. a dog comes in through the front door and chases a four foot 5 inch girl around the building, twice. the nerds can't spell their own names and can beat the sh- out of any given member of the surrounding suburban schools. everybody wants to be a lawyer and graduate from CMSU. nobody actually graduates from CMSU... i can't think of anything else... lata nigga!

Cross-X by Joe Miller

hard to believe

The first thought that crossed my mind when I read about prison conditions in Africa was, You should be happy. You're life isn't that hard.

Ugh. How self absorbed.

News like this really challenges my faith. Lately I've been praying with fair regularity. Pretty much every morning. I ask God to guide me, to put me to good use. And, down in the bottom of each prayer, mostly unspoken, is a request to feel happy, light of spirit.

Then I read about people stacked up on top of one another in disease ridden shacks in Africa, and I think it's all absurd.

God's plan for me??!!

I just can't make sense of it.

What kind of God would intercede in the life of a privileged American schmoe like me, and yet let so many people live in absolute misery?

To me, that's the hardest question.

future

This blog entry is on point. And gutsy -- it's written by a reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News, which is owned by Knight-Ridder (which also owns our beloved Star), and it actually takes a few smacks at the corporate ownership.

What's great about it is that the fictional part that opens the passage is probably the best prediction I've yet seen about the future of news. And I like it! It looks really cool.

I know I bash on the local paper here quite a bit here, but the truth is, I'm scared to death at the prospect of the Star or any other big daily paper going under. Grumbles aside, these papers still have the the only real institutional heft to carry the Fourth Estate forward in our country. Bloggers can't do it. Alt-weeklies can't do it. And TV news is racist drivel.

So this idea of the "norg" being a converged salon of information where folks can enter from whichever direction they feel comfortable, interact with the info, repackage it, share it with one another -- I think it's exciting.

This Attytood post reads in parts like a manifesto:

We prefer to talk down to the public rather than talk to them. Even at our very best – and there are many, many talented newspaper journalists in America – we are more likely to aim at wooing contest judges than at wooing new readers. And we have a knee-jerk tendency to defend our narrow world of messy ink printed on dead trees, when instead the time is here to redefine who we are and what we do.

We are, and can continue to be, the front-line warriors of information -- serving up the most valuable commodity in a media-driven era. But that means we must be the message, not the medium, and so we must adjust to give consumers news in the high-tech ways that they are asking for, not the old-tech way that we are confortable with.

Damn right!

poem

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from a student at a local high school who apparently reads my blog regularly (I read his, too; when he posts). He wanted help on a homework assignment, which was to interview someone and write a poem based on the answers. I quickly sent my answers back to him, and this morning I was greated with one of the nicest and most touching messages I've ever had delivered to me. I feel a little weird posting it. But I've been pretty down lately, dealing with a lot of very intense, bizarre conflicts. So... I don't know. Just, so, here it is:

The Writer

Through his wireframe glasses, the Writer views
A world in which all the people must choose
Between good and evil, virtue and sin
And all this he incorporated within
Five hundred words in the local news rag
Informing us all, raising a red flag
When injustice rears its horrible head
We march the streets, he uses words instead
Opening doors and breaking down walls
Making us rethink who we pass in the halls
But now he has moved into penning books
Telling a tale of teens judged by their looks
Who overcame the obstacles to win
In a contest ruled by well-dressed men
Even though at times he has pennies to his name
And he might not bask in the glow of fame
Passion for knowledge is what guides his life
Learning as he writes of a world full of strife
As well as joy, and fear, and loathing of all
And through it he continues to stand tall
Never wavering with his true morals
Even if it will strip him of his laurels
On the internet he scribes of his days
And looks at the world with an unflinching gaze
He speaks for others who have no choice
And are screaming, but without any voice

being right

Years ago, when I lived in Boulder, I had a spiritual advisor of sorts. He wasn't some far-out, long-haired dude like you might think. He was a machinist. An old gearhead.

I used to call him when I was in a jam, or I wasn't quite feeling right. Often, this was during periods of conflict.

He'd patiently listen to all the details of whatever drama I was living, and then he'd say, "Would you rather be right, or dead? Because there's no life in being right."

It's so true. When I feel as though I'm "right" and someone else is "wrong," it's as if I cease to fully live. All I do is think over and over and over in my head all the ways I'm right and they're wrong. The thoughts are so persistent and strong that I become numb to pretty much everything else. Dead, in a way.

Cross-X by Joe Miller

good debate

I spent some of the afternoon at Central High debriefing about the tournament this past weekend. The next stop for the squad is the Shawnee Mission East tournament in Johnson County, which Geoffery and Ebony won last year. It's going to be interesting this year because they won't have the same judging pool. It'll be more folks from the community, and they might not be as open to the "exclusionary norms" arguments Central runs. I think it'll be an interesting challenge, though.

The following weekend, Geoffery and Leodis will compete in Chicago at The Glenbrooks, one of the biggest debate tournaments in the country. There'll be something like 200 teams in their division. Last year, Ebony and Geoffery went 3-4, though Geoffery picked up fifth-place speaker, which was pretty huge.

This tournament's a challenge not only because of its size, but because it's more likely there'll be judges who are resistent to so-called nontraditional arguments. But I think Geoffery and Leodis might have a better chance this year, becauuse they've gottenn a lot better at controlling debate rounds and making it really clear why judges should vote for their case. Which -- Duh! -- is what it's all about.

Debate practice provided a nice break from this weird resentment/conflict hole I dove into over the last couple of days on this blog. It's such an incredible game, really, and sometimes I feel as though I learn more than the kids. It sharpens soo many skills. And I just loved sitting in that classroom at Central for an hour or so trying to figure out how express arguments more clearly, to get down to the essence of

mr. journalist

I've been following the adventures of Mr. Cellophone, a brilliant student at Oak Park High in suburban KC, for some time now. I'm particularly pleased with the recent twists of his life story. It seems he's gone and gotten himself enrolled in newspaper class. Today he reported that his first story got published in the school paper, but it wasn't very satisfying:

I got my thing published in the school paper. It's kind of cool to see your name on the front of a paper with several thousand copies. But, ya know, meh. Doesn't change the fact that it's boring as hell. I want to start an Oak Park alternative news magazine. We'd print really subversive and inflammatory and unnecessarily long features about how the administrators are fucking us over with their MAP testing and their socialist philosophies and their high cafeteria prices. Maybe some investigative journalism about how our assistant principal used to be a transvestite stripper or something. We'd write reviews of really obscure Italian films and the newest avant-freak-folktronica albums. It would be called OP Weekly.

Hmm. Sounds like my early career.

good gates

'm midway through a fascinating and deeply challenging New Yorker article about Bill and Melinda Gates and their efforts to eliminate diseases that affect the poor. By challenging I don't mean tough read, but because it has quotes from world health officals:

"There is one sad fact about the malaria community," kent Campbell, a former chief of the malaria branch at the Centers for Disease Control, told me. "We have always been so wedded to failure that we don't even have the leadership necessary to risk the additional failure to get where we need to be. This would cost two or three dollars a person." He was referring to treatment and prevention services for Africans. "It has gone on for too long. I would love to believe that in the United States this effort is being driven by a decent desire to help, but I don't think most American's give a rat's ass about the death of millions of African kids each year. I don't think they ever have."

Meantime, the Gates foundation has spent "six billion dollars to address health issues in the third world -- more than nearly every other... nation" that contributes to the World Health Organization.

I recall not so long ago believing that Bill Gates was evil. Sort of a 21st Century railroad baron. But, man, if this is where he's going to put his money, I'm all over the Microsoft products.

Gotta dig this:

Gates owns more than a billion shares of Microsoft, which at times have been worth as much as a hundred billion dollars. Today, after his contributions to the foundation, his net worth stands at roughly half that amount. "We knew that we wanted to give virtually all of it away instead of having it go to our kids," he said.

Right on!

Cross-X by Joe Miller

iowa caucus 2005

Some of you more loyal readers might recall a post I made last year about Central High's fantastic performance at the Iowa Caucus, a big debate tournament in Cedar Rapids. Well, we returned this year and did even better.

All of Central's varsity debaters had winning records. Dominique Baker and Sean Easterwood went four-two, though they didn't clear to the trophy rounds.

Geoffery Stone took first-place speaker for the second year in a row:



(BTW, when his name was called at the awards ceremony he received a standing ovation, which is something I can't recall ever seeing at a tournament, though I haven't been around the game for long.)

Sophomores Aaron Thomas and Matheno Frasier-Bey advanced to octofinals, where they lost to eventual champion LeMars High of Iowa:



(This is quite an accomplishment, considering the two are sophomores; the jump from novice to varsity is very, very difficult.)

Geoffery and Leodis advanced to semifinals, where they got beat by a very good team from Wichita East:



(in the process, they picked up their first TOC bid of the year, which is a pretty big deal if you're sompeting on the national debate circuit.)

It was a great weekend, with many highlights. Above all it was great to see our squad (coaches, like me, included) having good, friendly interactions with folks from other schools. There were a lot of Kansas schools there, and it was cool to get to know some of them, and to see them do so well in the competition.

I came home exhausted, but with my spirits lifted considerably.

bunk

Senator Jim's latest move is obviously a campaign ploy. One of Claire's primary campaign platforms is government spending -- as in the so-called small-government GOP has created the biggest, most expensive government in Americankind, and she -- a Show-me Donkey with lots and lots of favors to repay -- is going to be the one to bring it all under control. No doubt this strategy comes right out of the focus groups Claire's Big Dem backers from Back East have paid for, because it sure as hell doesn't jibe with the spirit of Democrats (especially Missouri Dems), who never saw a piece of pork they didn't like, or a crony they didn't want to pay.

So now Talent calls a press conference and announces a bill to give the president line-item veto power, to cut down on all this ridiculous spending he's party to. He's mixed some Eye of Newt into the brew. Well folks, it's just posturing, because it'll never pass both houses of Congress, much less a nationwide vote. He might as well have gotten up to the podium and made fart sounds. This bill will have about the same effect.

Plus it's stupid. This bill basically says that hundreds and hundreds of members of Congress can't be trusted to prevent one another from using our tax dollars as a bribery slush fund. So we should instead trust one man (and, I suppose, his cronies) to control spending. Yeah, right. Like we can expect the President not to play favorites and the bribery game. Graft will just be more focused if the President gets the line-item veto.

But, no matter. Politics isn't about doing right by the people so much as getting re-elected. Senator Jim's gotta keep his job. He needed an answer to Claire's needling. Now he can roll into Rolla, clear his throat and say, "I agree that government spending is out of control, that's why I introduced a bill calling for a line-item veto..."

race test

I've been at Central since noon, working on debate stuff. After a while, we got bored with debate. The kids decided to try to take the race test. None of the kids could get it to work. They kept filing the images and words in the wrong caterories, and the results were inconclusive. So I took it.

When I first took it, it came back saying I have no preference between black and white. This time it said I have a "strong preference" for African-Americans over Caucasian Americans.

"Huh," I said. "That means I'm racist."

"Against your own race!" Geoffery shouted, laughing. "Welcome to the Dark Side!!"

Seriously, this is a fascinating development. I first learned of this test through Malcolm Gladwell's best-seller, Blink. In it, Gladwell said he often scored as slightly prejudiced against blacks, which alarmed him because he's "half black." Indeed, he reported, blacks often score as prejudice as well.

He did say, however, that he could change this if he took the test after being surrounded by positive images of blacks. This part of the book was one of the best arguments I've ever seen for diversity. He writes that one can reduce prejudice by spending time with blacks.

MMy most recent results on this test would seem to support this, since I took it while spending an afternoon with brilliant black teens.

Kinda cool.

gut ache

Most folks I know have a hard time with conflict. Today I received a strongly worded, pissed off e-mail from an acquaintance. It was based on a simple misunderstanding, and I called the person up, and cleared it up. But I still feel a gnawing ache in my gut. It won't go away. In fact, it seems to be getting worse. It's in the space just below my rib cage, just above my abdomen, just a little bit below the skin of my belly. It feels like a hole. I've felt this feeling many, many times, always in the same place, almost always after a sour interaction with someone else. It seems to just stick around until it's ready to go, like a cold. I can nurse it, but it has t run its course.

I've read recently that there's a physiological correlation for everything human's experience. I've long felt emotions in this space in my abdomen. Has anyone studied this place in the body? I've long suspected that it's the center of my soul.

Today I went for a long run. I was thinking about stories, the actual structure and phenomenon of them, the way they're impressions of time driven by conflict, struggle, suffering and lead, one usually hopes, to resolution and joy. And I wondered if suffering is one of the many extra dimensions physicist say exist in our universe. I thought as I ran along on this lovely fall day, I wonder if these other dimensions, at least one or two of them, are emotions, struggle, the stuff of story, that which defines, in many ways, our relation to time.

And maybe this makes me sound as though I'm back on drugs, but it's just an interesting notion to play with.

Like, we're in a three-dimensional world. And Einstein says time is a fourth dimension, and that's fairly easy to comprehend. But what about all these other dimensions they say exist -- as many as 12 or 13, according to the string theorists. What on earth might those be like? How could we possibly begin to comprehend those?

One way physicists try to describe other dimensions is to imagine how a being in a two-dimensional world would experience a three-dimensional object. A ball, for instance. They say they would experience a ball as a circle that expands and contracts. Can you picture that? A ball experienced as many succeeding two-dimmensional cross sections of itself? An expanding and contracting circle?

Maybe that's how we experience these other dimensions, if they do actually exist. I thought, as I ran, maybe suffering or ecstacy or whatever is those other dimensions. We cant see them in their totality, just experience them as these clouds of sensation that pass through in ways that seem at times to be mysterious, but which ultimately drive and define our relationship to time.

Anyway, it was just a crazy long thought I had while running. And recounting it here kind of eases the wounded feeling I have because of my little e-mail conflict, which, in the big scheme of things, won't amount to anything, but still has me utterly captivated for the moment, in the worst way.

awakening

I've been depressed lately. Some days are worse than others, and today started as one of those days. My weekly debate session at The School felt daunting.

I felt completely empty as I began the class. I was just saying words. My brain was straining. And I sensed that the students could pick up on my emptiness, and this made me feel panicky. My mind froze. I could barely talk.

The teacher and I divided the class into two groups and had them read one paragraph from an Amnesty International report about racial profiling. Just one paragraph. That's it. But the group I was working with didn't want to do it. I tried to get them to try, but it was no use, so I just sat there numbly. I looked up at the clock. A mere ten minutes had passed. This was going to be a long hour.

Then the teacher came over to bail me out. She re-explained the task and one of the girls, K., jumped right in, reading the text clearly and with conviction. She hadn't been in the class before. She pulled the cap off of a highlighter and highlighted the good parts. Explained to her that this would be evidence for her to make a case to the government, and she instantly understood, started constructing a speech. She caught on so fast I grabbed the evidence from my previous classes, and she read that and highlighted it, and understood how it would all fit together to make a case.

Then it was time to give speeches, and she marched right up to the front of the room and cold nailed it. Natural born debater.

I asked her if she'd be into staying after school to practice, and she said yes without hesitation.

There are three other kids in the class who were into it as well, all of them girls. I asked them if they'd be willing to after school, and they said they would -- though one, T, a 17-year-old, has a four-year-old son and will need to work out childcare.

Now my spirits were lifted. I can work with this, I thought.

meixcan buffer

ere's one for TKC, who tirelessly exposes the Star's institutionally racist ways.

Yesterday I was at Central and I casually picked up a copy of the Star. I flipped to a story about hurricane Wilma, and I couldn't believe what I read. I read it out loud, to guage the students' reactions (emphasizing a few key points):

Much of Florida went on high alert Wednesday, and the keys ordered visitors to evacuate as Wilma exploded into the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record.

Still, a small ray of hope emerged: If Wilma rams into Mexico’s Yucatan region,its expected right turn toward Florida could be significantly altered and the storm system could be considerably weakened, the National Hurricane Center said.

The students all laughed, and widened their eyes.

"Damn," Geoffery said. "That's just blatant."

a good star blog

No sooner do I diss the Star's early forrays into the blogosphere when I happen across a really good one, Bill's "Faith Matters" Weblog.

Now this is how you do it. He provides good info and lots of links to interesting stuff around the web. But above all it's honest and authentic. I get a real sense of who Bill is when I read this blog, and that makes me trust him. He's willing to be vulnerable, to stand out there in cyberspace as a human being, not some professional contrivance of humanity. And this, I think, is key to journalists' success in this new forum of blogs. My sense is that the reason why blogs are so popular is because they humanize information. They let you get your news from friends. And, conversely, that's part of the reason why newspapers are losing popularity. They aspire to that God's-eye view that's impossible to obtain, that savvy info consumers are coming to resent more and more.

And furthermore (I say from my soap box, wagging a pointy finger), this'll make for better journalists. If blogs can make journalists more trustworthy to consumers, I think they'll also make us more trustworthy to sources, and that'll make for better stories.

Good job, Bill! This one's definitely going to be a daily read.

the best

As of right now, my favorite blog is pomegranate pretty.

happiness

On my morning walk today, I listened to a podcast of NPR's Science Friday. The guests were Daniel Nettle and Gregory Berns, two experts in happiness and satisfaction. I found it very interesting, because I was in a bit of a funk recently, and I still have lingering feelings of dissatisfaction.


There were a couple key things I got from the program.

One is that our brains appear to be geared toward a constant quest for new experiences. As Dr. Berns, humans seem to be engineered to learn more and more about the world.

The other was balance. As Dr. Nettle observed, this striving for the new, especially with regards to material posessions can begin to resemble addiction, and this can have an opposite effect. He talked about the differing approaches to happiness in Eastern and Western cultures, with the West in constant search of conquest and the East angling always toward detachment.

II found the whole conversation to be helpful and comforting.

For one, it made me feel good about my career choice. As a jjournalist, it's my job to go out and try experience and understand things outside my day-to-day range of experiences. On the other hand, the conversation offered an exciting challenge, though not entirely new, to try to detach myself some from my desires and find contentment in what I already have.

revisiting esmie

Last week, a got a big spike in visitors looking for stuff about Esmie Tseng, the 16-year-old girl accused of stabbing her mother to death. There was another hearing in her case on Wednesday, and I guess that sparked the interest. I didn't attend the hearing. From what I understand, it was short and uneventful. I've been told that Esmie smiled a lot at her attorney, which indicates a turnaround in their relationship since the last hearing.

I had intended to go to a hearing in another juvenile murder case which was scheduled for the exact time as Esmie's, but I was too busy trying to earn money. It was a pre-trial hearing for Michael Jones, a 17-year-old who faces second-degree murder charges in the September killing of Steven Peters, a bassist for the Kansas City Symphony. Like Esmie, Michael is being triied as an adult. I became interested in Michael's case because he's a longtime friend of a student I work with at Central High, Geoffery Stone. Geoffery's the leader of the debate squad there, and an all around good kid.

Last month, on the afternoon after I attended Esmie's earlier hearing, I showed up at Central and found Geoffery in a state of distress because he had visited Michael in jail that morning. He felt as though this kid he'd been friends with since kindergarten was being ramrodded into a very long prison sentance, and really had no one to advocate for him. And he was dismayed by his friend's behavior. A few days earlier, Geoffery had seen Michael on TV, walking into the court room with a big smile, flashing gang signs.

"Why did you do that, Michael?" he asked his friend that morning. "They're going to fry you."

"Because," Michael saiid, "I have nothing more to live for."

Geoffery told me that Michael has had a tough life. His mother raised him and his siblings until she was murdered when he was under ten years old. He would go wiith Geoffery to church sometimes and everyone there really liked him. He's mild-mannered and friendly. Geoffery told me Michael's not the least bit violent.

All I know about Michael's case comes from the Star and Geoffery's account of his conversation with Michael. None of these reports place Michael in the room where Peters was murdered. He was in a car parked outside when Peters was shot. But Michael admits that he and his co-defendent had gone to Peter's place to rob him, and this falls squarely under Missouri's secoond-degree murder statutes. If you are committing a felony, or even if you plan to commit a felony, and someone dies in the course of events, then you face second-degree murder charges.

I feel much more sad about Michael's situation than about Esmie's. Yes, Michael appears to have made a very bad decision when he got in that car and headed off to commit a robbery. But I don't think he planned for it to end in death. Perhaps our community will be safer if Michael is tried and convicted as an adult for second-degree murder, if he's locked up for most of his adult life. But I've been around enough kids like Michael to suspect that, for the most part, he's not a menace to society. If Geoffery says he's basically a good kid, I believe him. I just think he needs soome help.

It's puzzling situation. While I want to see young men like Michael take responsibility for their actions, to make better decisions, I'd also like to see our community do a better job of making better decision-makers out of kids like Michael. Much of this burden falls on the folks who played an immediate role in Michael's upbringing. But I also believe that we who never knew Michael, who rarely walk in his circles, also share some blame. To me, it boils down to privilege. My privilege in this society is braced, at least in part, by the relative lack of privilege for kids like Michael. And believe I have an obligation to use my privilege to help, even in the smallest way, level the playing field.

After Geoffery told me about Michael's situation, I told him about Esmie's case. I was curious to know his opinion as to whether or not she should be tried as an adult. After thinking about it for a while, he said he thought she should be. Unlike Michael, there appears to be little doubt that she murdered her mother. And the crime was horribly vicious. The fact that she was so bright and full of potential only makes the case for adult punishment stronger, Geoffery said.

Then I told him about all the people who have been rallying behind Esmie, trying to move her case into the juvenile division. I think this really disturbed Geoffery. Where's the community to support Michael? Esmie had a vast, strong support system for her entire life. Michael's family is poor and broken. His schools suck. His neighborhood dirty and run down compared to Esmie's. It offers few opportunities. And I believe his neighborhood is that way n large part because Esmie's neighborhood is so good. Kansas City's east side exists for the sake of Johnson County.

It all makes Geoffery feel like society places more value on kids like Esmie than on kids like Micheal.

"These people should ask themselves," Geoffery said, "if they would do the same thing if this were a black male."

long distance romance

A couple of years ago, a group of kids from Azerbaijan came to Kansas City for an exchange program with central High. And some Central kids visited Azerbaijan the following spring. Here's a long-distance IM chat between two of them that took place recently. Very sweet.

Night_Snipers: hello
Narmishka324: hi
Night_Snipers: i miss you
Night_Snipers: so how is life
Narmishka324: everything is Ok...
Narmishka324: how are u?
Night_Snipers: im fine--college is ok
Narmishka324: YOur University??
Night_Snipers: yea
Narmishka324: what is the time in Kansas???
Narmishka324: or where you are?
Night_Snipers: almost 1 pm
Night_Snipers: what time is it there
Narmishka324: 21:23
Narmishka324: sorry 53
Narmishka324: your are not in college?
Night_Snipers: yes
Night_Snipers: we have two days off
Narmishka324: holyday?
Narmishka324: or its' allways like that?
Night_Snipers: no
Night_Snipers: just a fall brake
Night_Snipers: thats all
Night_Snipers: so....have u been getting my emails
Narmishka324: of course... if I answerd them
Night_Snipers: can may i ask....
Narmishka324: ...
Night_Snipers: is there any way that i can contact you---like a phone call--a text messege--a letter in the mail
Narmishka324: your contacting me by e-mail.
Night_Snipers: i wanna hear your voice or at least see your handwritting
Night_Snipers: x100
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324: what about phone, i just afraid that I cuoldn't understand you, cause my English is very bad
Narmishka324: and I really didn't speak to anyone since you lefty
Narmishka324: so it will be just wasting your money to call me
Night_Snipers: woman i wouldnt care if you couldnt talk--i just want to know your on the other line
Narmishka324: what about handwriting...
Narmishka324: that's nice idea
Night_Snipers: i could write yo u
Night_Snipers: send you a letter
Narmishka324: lets go back to 60ns, and write mail to each other
Narmishka324: Azerbaijan, Baku
Night_Snipers: but i still wanna hear your voice
Narmishka324: Azadlig ave. 151b ap37 for Rustamova Narmina
Night_Snipers: u dont understand--how much that i just wanna come to baku
Night_Snipers: and see you
Night_Snipers: $
Narmishka324: I undesrtand you....
Narmishka324: I really want it too.... maybe me coming to kansas
Narmishka324: But what can we do??????
Night_Snipers: i know--thats that sad part
Night_Snipers: so do you really miss me
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers: lol
Narmishka324: of course...
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers: x1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Narmishka324:
Night_Snipers: you see my crazy pic
Narmishka324: it isnt crazy.... its nice
Night_Snipers: i know
Night_Snipers: goofy americans
Narmishka324: what does it means???
Night_Snipers: that we are speical people
Night_Snipers: lol
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers: but you are too
Narmishka324: you show me one more time, that americans like only themselfs ]
Narmishka324:
Narmishka324: Thats not bad
Night_Snipers: so may i still call you--- i swear it wont be a waste of my money
Narmishka324: I really hesitate... I don't know....
Night_Snipers: it's ok
Night_Snipers: how about i start with a letter to you--and you respond back--lets see how that goes
Night_Snipers: i will have to find something to write about
Narmishka324: I will be really happy to get a letter from you...
Narmishka324: just write your exact adress, so i could mail you back
Night_Snipers: Ebony Rose
Night_Snipers: B0921107)
Night_Snipers: LOL
Narmishka324: have u a mobile phone?
Night_Snipers: Ebony Rose
Box (921107)
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
United States Of America

Night_Snipers: yes i have a mobile phone
Narmishka324: whats your number.
Narmishka324: what about my adress, I'll write you tommorow bu email.
Narmishka324: cause i don't know the number of our post ofice.
Narmishka324: a should call them and ask .
Night_Snipers: +15026446147
Night_Snipers: what is your address
Narmishka324: that is the number with all codes?
Narmishka324: I'll w2rite you tomorrow
Night_Snipers: ok
Narmishka324: I'v just send u sms....
Narmishka324: You get it!!!!!!!!!!
Narmishka324: woooooooooooooow
Night_Snipers: x100
Narmishka324: thats cool..... never think that our sistem of mobile phones can contact with yours
Night_Snipers: yeap----now every time you need me --you can send me a sms
Narmishka324: u too
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324:
Night_Snipers: -narmina
Narmishka324: how are Joe and anny??????
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers: they are fine
Narmishka324: didn't they get married yet?
Night_Snipers: not yet
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324: what about their LOVELY dogs?????
Night_Snipers: THEIR LOVELY DOGS ARE STILL NICE
Narmishka324: as allways
Night_Snipers: as always
Narmishka324: doubl "l"
Night_Snipers: only one "l"
Night_Snipers: always i will remember you
Night_Snipers: that's how is used
Narmishka324: so you see.... my English is........................................
Night_Snipers: GREAT
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324:
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers: SO ARE YOU GOING TO SEND ME A PIC OF YOU
Narmishka324: I jsut haven't any new on my PC
Narmishka324: just
Narmishka324:
Night_Snipers: do you have some old ones
Night_Snipers: but u can send me some over the mail
Narmishka324: but I gonna scan some, for u and alsou for my Mum
Narmishka324: Of course I will send
Narmishka324: But 1st i wait a letter from u.....
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324: with pic of u, and your aunti... and everybody a know ...
Night_Snipers: ok
Night_Snipers: IM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW
Night_Snipers: U MADE MY DAY AGAIN
Narmishka324: How are them...... Mr Rinehard, geoffrey, day
Narmishka324: ????
Narmishka324: YOud made my nigth cause i'm going to sleep soon
Night_Snipers: Jane is still teaching, geffory is in his last year of high school---day is is her 2nd year of college so is dionnie--antione is in his 1st year of college
Narmishka324: Do you see them????
Night_Snipers: some day soon i will get to walk down the street holding your hand
Narmishka324: Where Antione is? What college?
Night_Snipers: i see them some but not lately b/c im 8 hours away from home
Narmishka324: all of them are i Kansas??
Night_Snipers: Univerity of Kansas City Missouri i think
Narmishka324: in Kansas.
Night_Snipers: we live in Missouri
Narmishka324: I know.......
Night_Snipers: Kansas City, Missouri
Night_Snipers: you know what
Narmishka324: that your living in Kansas City, Missouri!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Night_Snipers: hahahaha
Night_Snipers: hahahahaha
Night_Snipers: u live in Baku
Night_Snipers: i know that
Narmishka324: Say big big HI, to my notholding friend Antione!!!!
Narmishka324: You dont know the name of the state I live in........ hahahaha
Night_Snipers: Azerbaijan
Night_Snipers: hahahaha
Narmishka324: but the region......
Night_Snipers: .....ummmmmm..............Narminaland
Narmishka324: you liv in USA, Missouri, Kansas City
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324: A live in Azerbaijan, ................., Baku
Narmishka324: Maybe maybe....
Narmishka324: in some yaers they gonna recall it to Narmina, when I become the president of Az...
Night_Snipers: damn right
Night_Snipers: i will be there when that happens
Narmishka324: !st woman president in our state....
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers: YEY
Narmishka324: hope u reaaly will.
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324: do you still listen to Nigth Sn?
Night_Snipers: yea---sounds better when your singing though
Narmishka324: thanks
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers: LOL
Narmishka324: last time a changed NP to Nickelback....
Narmishka324: So your listening my music, and I'm to your
Narmishka324: Funny
Night_Snipers: how is the crying song
Night_Snipers: i still listen to SADE
Narmishka324: Crying song.... its always with me
Narmishka324: + your flower made from paper
Night_Snipers: you still have that
Narmishka324: of course....
Night_Snipers: i still have your letter you gave me when your were mad--u made a airplane out of it
Narmishka324: It will always be with me.... even my childred, and grandchildren will lokk at this flower and listen to the Crying sont, and tell their children an old story about me adn you
Narmishka324:
Night_Snipers: well hopefully i will be with you--to tell the story too
Narmishka324: sorry to say that, but I think that when my grandchildrens children wil come to this wold, we will die for that tiome .....
Narmishka324: that story gonna be a legent
Night_Snipers: how about our children
Narmishka324:
Night_Snipers: ok
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324: it was funny
Night_Snipers: what was
Night_Snipers: when i said "ok"
Narmishka324: all that.... about children, and "our children" particualli
Night_Snipers: oh--thats funny--why is that---
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324: u don't think so...?
Night_Snipers: no--
Narmishka324: why?
Night_Snipers: why not
Narmishka324: what, why not??????
Night_Snipers: you heard me---why is it funny
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324: just because it is funny... dreaming of legends about that.... and so on
Night_Snipers: oh--so not having "our kids" is not funny but thinking of us as legends is ok
Night_Snipers: oh--so not having "our kids" is not funny but thinking of us as legends is i understandNarmishka324: maybe its not funny, but it's the reality....
Night_Snipers: hahahaha
Night_Snipers: x100
Night_Snipers: telling kids that Ebony and Narmina was using their pillow and bear to talk to each other when the power when out
Narmishka324:
Narmishka324:
Night_Snipers: i remember you said to me
Narmishka324: ...
Night_Snipers: Ebony "oh narmina dont leave me" --Narmina "im not leaving you this time your leaving me"
Night_Snipers: i used to sing to you every day
Narmishka324: I cried in the airport
Night_Snipers: i when see you again im going to sing to you everyday--
Night_Snipers: or when you want me to
Night_Snipers: im going to hold your hands and tell you how beautiful you are--every day--and sing the crying song
Narmishka324:
Night_Snipers: would you love that
Narmishka324: you know, you'r still the onlu man who have ever sing to me... and sit in my room all nigth long
Night_Snipers:
Night_Snipers: hopefully i will be the only man to keep singing to you
Narmishka324: azeri boys can't sing..... you'll always be the only one
Night_Snipers: hahahaha
Night_Snipers: thats good--and if some azeri boy tries to sing to you--tell them "im waiting for ebony to come back"
Night_Snipers: lol
Night_Snipers: x100
Narmishka324: promise
Night_Snipers:
Narmishka324: But now I must go..... I gt some home to do for tommorow....
Narmishka324: homework
Narmishka324: so.... tomorrow i will write you mu adress, and i'm waiting a mail from you with pics
Narmishka324: Have a nice day
Night_Snipers: you too
Night_Snipers: good night
Night_Snipers: x100x100
Narmishka324: Bye>>

IM WALKING ON AIR RIGHT NOW---

crime

I came across Crime Scene KC a couple of days ago and I briefly subscribed to its RSS feed. It's one of the Star's first ventures into the blogosphere, along with Aaron Barnhart's TV Barn.

I guess TV and Crime are relatively smart subject areas for a big newspaper's early forays into blogging, though my sense is that politics is the wisest (the St. Louis Post Dispatch has a pretty good one, managed by the best political reporter in the state, Jo Mannies).

Personally, I don't like either as a subject for a blog, so I won't be subscribing. This is probably a good sign for the folks at the Star. I tend to stand apart from the masses (and the money). With TV, all I watch is PBS and C-SPAN, so I'm not much interested in what old Aaron has to say. And on the crime front. Well. I think this blog is just another force driving our community deeper into the subdivisions of hell.

I'd rather see us all broaden our understanding of crime. It's so easy to focus on violent crimes, and property crimes. They're sensational. They get your adrenaline-laced fear flowing. But they're still anomolies of urban life, for the most part. They don't really affect most people. Even in so-called high crime areas, in the midst of so-called crime waves, the overwhelming majority of people won't be victims of crimes. That's my sense as a resident of a so-called bad neighborhood.

But more than that, these incidents are really just symptoms of deeper ills. And that's where the true crime resides. In the systems and institutions. And I mean these in the broadest sense. I'm not talking solely about back-room conspiracies to keep communities divided and unequal, and to steal from a blind public, to bilk the poor and the powerless, though that's part of it. I mean collective notions of spirit and community as well. As such we all have responsibility -- from the richest and most powerful sons of privilege to the poorest daughters of share croppers.

What's weird is that the author of this Crime Scene KC blog would seem to have his finger on this pulse of underlying injustice. If I'm not mistaken, Greg Reeves used to be theStar's database reporter. He was part of what was supposed to be the new wave in investigative journalism: Computer Assisted Reporting. That's where you sort through all the data the government collects and find statistical proof of unfairness and wrongdoing.

At its best, this style of reporting can produce the kinds of stories that make for bestsellers that have the power to challenge our assumptions and even help us to come up with better strategies for shaping our communities. I fear that a half dozen crime posts a day will only serve to deepen the divides in Kansas City, and it will prevent us from tackling the big issues that actually fuel the crime.

finally employed...

...though not yet gainfully.



On Tuesday I went for a run and everything suddenly made sense. I had a clear, simple vision of what my next book project will be.

Yesterday, I wrote it out in a breathless e-mail to Agent Lydia. Literally within seconds of clicking "send," my cell phone was ringing.

She agreed: This is it.

So now, the next step is to pull together a proposal. That and just plain diving in.

I even have a working title, which I'm dying to post, but I won't because Allie says to do so would be unwise, and I agree. But if you're a friend or family, send an e-mail and I'll fill you in.

rich christians

I've been reading a fascinating book by Ronald J. Sider called Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. I came across it as I was researching the Jesus People Movement. It's kind of a classic of radical 1970s Christianity. I'm really enjoying it. It lays out reallly strong, easy to understand case. And it's just as revolutionary as can be, though in a refreshingly friendly, Golly gee! sort of way.

This part really resonated with me:

THE JUBILEE PRINCIPLE Leviticus 25 is one of the most radical texts in all of Scripture. At least it seems that way for people born in countries committed to laissez-faire economics. Every fifty years, God said, all land was to return to the original owners -- without compensation! Physical handicaps, death of breadwinner or lack of natural ability may lead some people to become poorer than others. But God does not want such disadvantages to lead to greater and greater divergence of wealth and poverty. God therefore gave his people a law which would equalize land ownership every fifty years.

A number of things come to mind here. For one, whenever I hear Leviticus I think about all the religious-political hoopty-doo over gay marriage. Anti-gay folks seize on one queerly worded line of text in that book to build entire political campaigns around. Yet here's this long, very specific passage that's essentially Marxist, and nobody says shit about that. What gives?

Of course, it also makes me think of Native Americans. And affirmative action. And Enron.

digital lemming

m ashamed to admit it, because I don't want to seem like a trendy schmoe, but podcasting is the best thing that's ever happened in my life as a comsumer of news. Sure, 99.9 percent of the stuff out there doesn't interest me in the least, and a lot of it is probably just plain crap. But it seems as though there's something for everyone. And I can say without hesitation that the things I've been subscribing to have truly enriched my life.

Top of the list is the podcasts offered by C-SPAN. I subscribe to all three of their offerings -- After Words, Q&A and American Perspectives. The first two are pure gold. They're hour-long interviews with a broad range of people. The third is a little less consistent; it's usually a lecture by some important person, and it's also typically an hour. Over the last month, I've listened to deep, probing conversations with Barbara Eirenreich, Arlen Spector, Artur Davis, David McCollough, David Brooks, as well as folks I'd never even heard of, such as Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Allan Weinstein, archivist for the United States.

What I love about these is how in-depth they are, and how diverse the points of view, and, honestly, how random the subject matter is. I listen to the shows on my iPod (no, I didn't return it) while I'm walking the dogs or working in the yard or even washing sishes. Not only does it make these mundane acts (chores, on bad days) more exciting and interesting, it actually makes me feel like I'm getting smarter. These recordings give me such a fascinating, fulsome, wide-reaching perspective on some aspect of American public life.

To be perfectly honest, one of the most rewarding things is the opportunity to hear conservatives talk at length about their points of view. It humanizes them, and helps me to see the ways in which my interests intersect with theirs. That's priceless, in my book. Because I'm really getting tired of this knee-jerk partisanship.

(I also subsrcibe to KC Currents and NPR's Science Friday, all very good as well.)

a bit of sunshine

The teacher I'm working with said I actually did a pretty good job yesterday, considering the circumstances. We were working with a bigger, less focused class because we had kids whose teacher was out sick. The teacher and I have been e-mailing back and forth, working on strategies for next Monday. So all is not lost. I feel fired up again.

Full disclosure: I've been pretty blue lately, hence the lack of posts. I could attribute it to a number of things. The catalyst was my second book idea falling through. For the last year or so I've been putting a lot of thought and energy (and, in all honesty, elaborite fantasies about the book's greatness) into the idea, and when I set it aside I was left with a sizable void. Add to this some very real uncertainty about my financial situation past late summer 2006 (until my final payment comes in upon release of Cross-X on August 22), and you have a legitimate case of the blues.

And some other things happened which added to the funk. My financial fears got me playing the magazine game again, which has always been depressing for me. It really is a game. You throw out an idea. Nine times out of ten they don't want the idea, but they reject it in a friendly way. So you take that as an invitation to toss out more ideas. And back and forth you go, trying to figure out what these damned editors want. Rejection. Rejection. Rejection. It's hard noot to let it get to you.

This month I've finally gotten some assignments -- the biggest of which won't be running until next October. But these are pretty well kknown magazines, and they pay well, so it feels like a breakthrough.

My duldroms really deepened, though, when I read Jared Diamond's Collapse. It made me feel like a planet-ruining glutton. For the past several days everything -- literally everything -- about my life has felt evil. That's not a great place ot be.

But today I went for a run and somehow that snapped me out of it. Suddenly this new book project I'm working up made sense and I had a clear conviction of my commitment to it. And with that came energy to do all the little life stuff I didn't have energy lately to do. I went ot Central this afternoon and we hada relatively productive practice.

So what needs to happen is that I need to force myself to run at least every other day.

god bless

I had my second session with the fledgling [The School] debate squad today. It was frustrating. Half the class fell asleep. And I couldn't for the life if me get the other half to stay focused.

The goal was to start bringing some substance into the process. I wanted the students to begin to understand the structure of a debate round. And I wanted to get them to start making generally coherent arguments with at least a minimum of supporting evidence.

Failure on both counts. The kids kept going off on tangents, and they visibly recoiled from written materials, and from the merest suggestions of structure.

The worst thing was that I could tell that a number of these kids are unusually bright. You can see it in their eyes when ideas register. You can hear it, too, when they begin to say something brilliant, and with passion. But it's like they're possessed by some sort of demon or afflicted with some sort of disease, and their natural brilliance isn't allowed to take over, it's shoved into the background, overshadowed by a spirit hell-bent on leading their bodies toward a life of obscurity. Sounds harsh, I know, but I've been hanging around a black Pentecostal church lately, and they talk a lot about the Devil. And I've been reading Cornel West's poignant writing about black nihilism. These things are coloring my interpretations.

After class concluded I was told that these kids are in the lowest-level track of the alternative school. And then I learned from a teacher friend that Monday's are always the worst day; kids are less eager to cooperate on the first day of the week. So it seems my challenge is formidible. The teacher I'm working with still feels optimistic, though. So we'll try again next Monday.

When I got to Central High later this afternoon, and heard kids reading speedily through heady debate cases, I felt as though I'd entered a prep school. If I'd gone to an actual prep school, I might well have considered mounting a suicidal coupe against the whole of American society.

Driving home tonight I heard a report on NPR about Liberia. What a wretched mess. Monrovia, the capital, a whole city with no electricity or running water. Of course, their history is mired in American racism and greedy Cold-War hegemony. All around the world people are in misery. Ours here is relatively nice, it seems.

I'm tired and ashamed of my nice car. If I could trade it in for justice, I would.

blubber

It's very hard not to hate over-privileged, stubbornly ignorant, fat, white men like Bill Bennett. Slate does an excellent job of tearing apart the asshole's defense, and that of the asshole's ignorant white defenders.

The scary thing is, I have a hunch that there are lots and lots and lots of Americans who secretly believe that Bennett's statement is true, and that the outcry against it is really just political correctness. In fact, Bennett's comments convey racism and prejudice on a fundamental level. Under these comments is the exact same juice that makes white folks feel a little antsy and on edge when we drive through the black side of town. It's that split second when we catch our breath when we see a black man walking toward us on an empty street.

and so it begins

The debate program at [The School] officially began today when I showed up at 1:45 to introduce eight or so kids in a social studies class to the game. I was very nervous going in, but it went well.

I tried to start off by playing a recent NPR report about the KC Central debate squad, but the students' eyes glazed over, so I jumped right in.

"This year's topic is about civil liberties," I said. "Freedom. Your rights. And the government's control of your rights. And one of the ways government can control your rights is with cops."

Then I asked, "What do you all think of cops?"

The response was overwhelmingly negative. The kids started telling stories about how they'd been harrassed, and how their relatives had been harrassed, and their neighbors, all of which I expected to hear. More than one student said they knew someone who had been shot by the police. Others said they'd known people who'd been arrested for not cooperating with police, for not being a "snitch." I started writing their comments on an old chalk board.

We got a couple of charitable comments about police officers -- they're not all bad, some of them are from the community -- and I wrote these on the left side of the board, opposite the list of negatives, which was getting quite long.

There was a dominant theme: Cops stop these kids and their friends and family because they're black or Hispanic and they live in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

For the sake of an argument, I suggested that maybe it's a good thing the cops stop folks in these neighborhoods, because that's where all the crime is. If it works to catch criminals, isn't that a good thing?

No! They all said.

Then one kid, the only boy in the class, explained that if cops do that they won't get the right guy all the time.

"Ok," I said. "What can we do to make cops good?"

I divided them into two groups and had them come up with two strategies to do this. One group suggested that cops need to get more involved in the community. The other said that cops should be punished more severely for their transgressions. And I mean severely.

"They need to get shot just like us!"

"If they can use tasers on us, we should get to use tasers on them!"

"They should have to meet with the PO," one said, referring to parole officers, more than likely from experience.

I had them write down a couple of points about how to carry out their plans, and why they would work.

Then we had a debate, me against them.

They gave speeches -- sometimes all at once -- making a case for what should be done.

Then I got up and said that if cops get more involved with communities, they might make friends with criminals and let them go free, and then crime will increase. And I said if cops were punished as a severely as criminals, no one would want to be a cop, and then there'd be no one to stop crime, and we would all die.

I could barely finish before they were all up out of their seats, telling me why my arguments were no good.

About 40 minutes into the class, a couple of the students promptly disengaged and started playing on computers in the back of the room. Then a couple more joined them. I was left with three students who wanted to keep going.

"So how do I join this debate team?" one of them asked.

"You're already on it," I said.

it's all so fast

I don't think I've ever gotten access so quickly.

Today I met with a person I'd like to write a book about. This means I would be hanging around this person almost daily for more than a year. He didn't even hesitate. Full access. No secrets. Anything I want.

We talked for about an hour and a half, and it's clear he's a great character. I don't think I've ever met anyone quite like him. He defies so many stereotypes. Outspoken. Doesn't mince words. No sacred cows.

He's built up something huge and amazing here in our fair city (or rather, on its outskirts), and he yearns to make it all bigger and more amazing.

It seems so right. I know there's a story here. Really, a matrix of interconnected stories, which is the kind I love to tell. But it's all happening so quickly, it's easy to second guess.

And it's still a bit early for certainty. Now I've got to hang around for a while, find other interesting people associated with this guy, and persuade them to let me in. I have no reason to believe that this will happen as easily.

But still, it's days like this when I love being a journalist. When I feel most at home in my career.

ylimaf kcalb eht

So, the Black Family was eliminated from the Amazing Race.

This is a conspiracy.

measuring prejudice

I just took the Harvard Implicit Association Test to determine my level of prejudice. It was made famous in Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller Blink.

I did alright:

You have completed the Black-White IAT.
The line immediately below summarizes the results of your task performance.

Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between White American and African American.

I also took the presidential preference test. I had to choose between Reagan and Dubya. (Some choice.) Apparently, I hate Reagan more:

Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for George W. Bush compared to Ronald Reagan.

(Seems about right.)

Lastly, I took the gender test.

Uh oh.

Allie's gonna kill me:

Your data suggest a slight association of Male with Science and Female with Liberal Arts compared to Female with Science and Male with Liberal Arts.

Interesting tests. They have a lot of them. I'm a little scared to take them all

the black family

It's always bothered me that reality TV shows and game shows only allow one, maybe two black contestants to participate (to say nothing of Latinos, who almost never get to play). It's so obviously a forced, restrained concession. Like February.

Now comes a new season of The Amazing Race. A family edition, with teams of four. And, of course, there's one black family.

Thing is, their last name is Black.

So when they come on screen, "The Black Family" flashes across the bottom.

Now, I don't mean any disrespect for the Blacks. They worked hard to get on the show, and they deserve to be there, and I, for one, hope they win.

But if there was ever a time to have more blacks on the show, this is it. With the Black Family being the only black family, it feels a lot like a Wayans Brother skit.

good ole joe

I know I'm a little late with this eulogy, but lately I can't stop listening to Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros. And I'm not exactly sure why. I usually can't stand late career solo stuff by heroes of yesteryear. And I'm hard pressed to explain what makes Strummer's stuff so special.

In principle, there's not much to it. It's basically just grown-up rock, with some bare-bones drinking music (a little British, a little Irish, a little American) mixed with dub and a bit of world music and just a touch of punk. But I find it to be profoundly beautiful. It's mature and authentic, which is probably why it's tough to pinpoint or describe, because such things are intangible.

Still, it's inspiring. Here's a guy who, in a past life, helped change the landscape of pop culture. Twice. Then in the last years of his life he put out this string of albums that were unremarkable in almost every regard, except that they were profoundly true.

Like so many rockers, he died too young. But, when it comes to creative careers, one can only wish one so full.

congratulations!

My buddy Joel is a finalist for the 2005 Online Journalism Awards. Way to go Joel!

funk

The writing life comes with severe mood swings. It's something I've struggled with ever since I sold the book. Something cool will happen, like the sale or a favorable response from the editor, and I'll be sky high for a while. Then normal life kicks in and, by contrast, it begins to feel an awful lot like depression. Worse, bona fide bummers happen now and then, and I'm sent reeling.

I think I've always experienced this, it's just always been on a much shorter cycle. Like, when I was working for the Pitch, I always had ups and downs. I'd have a breakthrough on one story, or I'd get a bunch of response on another, and I'd be all high. Then I'd have days and weeks when it seemed like I was just treading water, and I'd get pretty bummed. Difference is, it didn't last long. There, I was riding a high frequency wave, and now I'm trudging down a low, long one.

But there is relief. Today I was feeling like cold putty. I decided to go for a run. While on the run, I put together a few more pieces of a big idea I've been working on since last week. When I got home I had a phone conversation with a key source regarding this idea, and I set up a meeting for tomorrow. Then I e-mailed the idea to Agent Lydia and she replied:

Joe, NOW you're thinking along the right lines. My immediate reaction is great, really like this idea, and think you're the guy to do it.

No need to be in a funk--you have the goods, and you're coming up with great ideas. Do you want to talk about this, or to you want to start working up a proposal? I think this is it.

So the trick now is not to get too high.

low speed chase

Driving home from the dog food store tonight, I heard sirens echo all through my neighborhood. They got louder and louder until I spotted a line of cop cars slowly following an ice cream truck. Apparently, the chase had been winding its way through the neigborhood for some time because as I drove along I noticed people standing out on their front yards trying to figure out what was going on.

I didn't follow the action. There were a whole bunch of cars around me when the parade went by, so I couldn't change lanes. Maybe there'll be something about it on Tony's Kansas City tomorrow

trudge

Had a longish chat with Agent Lydia today. She confirmed what I suspected. The proposal isn't quite cooked yet.

Here's the intro:

I've been born again, twice, yet I don't feel any closer to Jesus. I've been baptized two times too: once as a baby, though I didn't hear about it until much later; and once as an adult, in front of a full congregation, dressed in a suit and a tie. Both experiences feel meaningless now. Yet the very failure of my salvation is significant, especially now, as our nation bends to the force of so-called fundamentalist Christian principles. During the most recent presidential election, the victorious party drew momentum and power from a grassroots network that spread deeply through church communities. Afterward, the newspapers and the TV pundits told us that the people had voted with their religion. True or not, it’s clear that, more than ever, the personal is political. Yet in this era when the nation’s moral compass seems so certain, if polarized, I’m drawn to my own story, my family’s story, our three-generation tale of faith and lack of faith, because I’m still unsure —not only of what I believe, but of whether or not one can be American and fundamentally Christian.

This story is an ellipses, a space between the news making moments where belief and political power intertwine. It begins in 1968, the year I was born to a pair of teenagers in northern Indiana, a month after Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered, taking with him to the grave an entire religious and political movement. It ends with the death of my father, in 1976, near the time when Ronald Reagan gave his seminal speech at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, a moment widely regarded as the flash point for the rise of the Christian right. During the eight years in between a Christian revolution flourished and faded away, and is now almost forgotten. They were “The Jesus People.” The movement grew so large it twice made the cover of Time magazine, and unwittingly formed a foundation for the faith-based political forces that enjoy so much power today. My father could have been the movement's poster child, following the path from drugs to God, taking both to extremes. For my grandparents, my dad’s salvation was bittersweet; they were pleased to see him clean from drugs, of course, but pained by his new faith, which differed so greatly from theirs. The family clashed on several epic occasions because my dad was convinced that his parents and two younger brothers were being led astray by false prophets, that the church had become staid and complacent at a time when Christians ought rise up and evangelize with the commitment and conviction of revolutionaries.

In the accounts of these fights lie lessons, not answers so much as questions to challenge human certainty about the divine. The stories upon which fundamentalism is based are maddeningly vague, open to interpretation and perversion, and my family's stories reveal ways in which this is so. The first eight years of my life marked a time when the nation’s religious calling was uncertain and up for grabs, and my family was living out all the ambiguity and potential. Now, as we gear up for another election where the debate is already being framed narrowly around moral issues, I offer our story as a means of broadening the conversation, of casting new parameters for the debate about the politics of God's will.

She said the whole connection is too forced, and I agree. Like I really have two stories here -- a family memoir, and an amorphous idea about Fundamentalism. And I'm basically too young and inexperienced to write a memoir.

So the plan is to slide all that family stuff into the background, and try to find a more contemporary narrative. All that family stuff can inform the main story. Like, I might want to bring it in at key moments for perspective and such.

So, I guess it's back to square one. Or maybe square three.

esmie chronicles: good journalism

Baby picture from Esmie Tseng's blog, possibly of her

I've finally listened to KC Currents's interview with Anthony Tao, a reporter at Kansas CIty Chinese Journal, about case of Esmie Tseng. Fascinating piece. In my opinion, Tao offered the best reporting on the situation in his three-part series that began on August 26. Of alll the stories that have been published after the incident (including those posted here), his were the only ones that tried to bring some honor to the life of Shuyi Zhang, who, after all, is the victim.

eesh

Alright, here's the deal. I did not go to Marshall, Missouri, tonight to see Claire, and I'm probably going to pull a TKC back-flip on this whole new-direction-take-the-blog-to-another-level thing, because I ain't making any money on it, and it just seems nuts, and, above all, it's not fun.

Whew.

I'm starting to worry that I'll broke come June, and I just don't have the energy or time to do a lot of work for free. Well, actually, I've been doing nothing but work for free for the past couple of days, in that I'm working on a book proposal I'm starting to have grave doubts about, and writing queries all damn day, and so far getting no bites (duh! I've only been at it a day), but, by June, by God, I'll be coasting on the buck-a-words, just wait and see.

So there. No Claire.

Instead I had dinner on the Plaza with rising political star Marcus Leach, president of UMKC's student government, and we had a good time talking about how stupid local Democrats are. He said, with total confidence, that he could help a virtual unknown beat Sam Graves on a $30,000 campaign. That's better than anything Claire would've said, guaranteed.

Oh, I'll still follow the Claire/Jim Showdown, but it'll be more along the RSS feed line (as in I'll be just another Joe Schmoe Blowhard). And I'll keep a toe in the Esmie story. I've still got some thoughts there.

But I want to go back to just writing random stuff and posting random pictures. So what if I never get four-or-five-figure hits. At least I'll be having fun. And isn't that what this is about?

esmie chronicles: some research

I think my radar is tweaked toward race and class issues.

In my ongoing investigation of the case of Esmie Tseng, who stands accused of murdering her mother, Shu Yi Zhang, I started a broad search to learn more about how the juvenile justice system works in Kansas. My initial forays into Google were frustrating, so I decided to broaden it to a national search, in hopes of finding someone I could call in, say, Washington, who might know of an expert or activist in Kansas.

And I wound up at this site for Building Blocks for Youth, and they have all these studies about racial disparities in juvenile justice (though they're all based in other places, like Chicago).

One in particular seems apropos of Kansas City: A Tale of Two Jurisdictions: Youth Crime and Detention Rates in Maryland & the District of Columbia.

Looks like I've got some reading to do...

show-me showdown: advanced aristotle

Here's how it looks to me.

1. Republican Party: A really slick, well-oiled, greedy patronage machine

2. Democratic Party: A totally disheveled, bumbling, greedy patronage machine.

So the question is, what makes the GOP so slick and well-oiled?

When I was looking through Senator Jim's quarterly financial report the other day, I paused for a while on the part where he reported spending $2,750 on software from Aristotle, Inc. My immediate thought was about an article I'd read some time ago in the New Yorker about how campaign managers -- Republican ones in particular -- have become masters at using computer data to pinpoint potential voters. It was fascinating how penetrating these numbers could be. I seem to recall, for instance, that they could determine things like whether or not a particular voter had kids who play soccer, and that this fact would make them more open to, say, a pro-life message. (Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the article archived online.)

This is what I mean by slick and well-oiled. It's like the GOP is a cruelly efficient and profitable private business, driven by no-nonsense economic algorithms, while the Dem Party is a cruelly inefficient and profit-less government agency, driven by whatever it is that drives (or parks) government workers (too many of them, anyway).

I checked out Aristotle Inc's website, half expecting to find hints that it's a right-leaning operation. But they're openly proud of being nonpartisan. They also brag that:

Aristotle customers had a 92% win rate, raised nearly twice as much money as non-customers, and were able to turn out voters 47% more effectively.

So what does this mean if I find mention of Aristotle Inc. in Claire's financial reports?

Mostly, though, I want to know more about this software, see it in action, correlate it to real-life stories. Once I get a few questions in mind, I'll give the Aristotle Inc. folks a call.

At risk of getting no responses, I ask you: Is there anything you want to know about the contemporary, digital political campaign? How computer software fuels (so-called) democracy?

As always, you're welcome to post comments, and I'll get busy hunting down some answers...

arm chair editor

You may have noticed a few whispers here and there on this blog lately about my desire to change things up. And if you're a regular reader you've no doubt noticed less of the random musings and more serialized entries tracking a couple of stories. (Three, actually, now that I've started a thread about my adventures as a new inner-city debate coach.) I know the start-up is a bit slow. New stories usually are, but I'm fairly confident that the stories will get a lot more interesting the more I dig.

Anyway, now I want to start another thread, called, as you can see in the bold type up above, "New New Journalism Journal." And what I have in mind here is a running account of me feeling my way through blogging and journalism, and trying to figure out where the two meet, or not.

Honestly, I'm not yet totally sure what will go in this thread, except for this "Armchair editor" idea I have. And basically it's just a weekly check in, like the kind I had with my editor back when I had a steady job, where I'd get a sense of where I am in the various stories I was working on and, most importantly, I'd find out where my editor wanted me to go.

But in this case, you're the editor.

Sounds hokey, I know. Blame Rupert Murdoch. I caught one of his speeches on C-SPAN where he said the new generation of information consumers resent the God-like perspective of newspapers and TV news. They (we) want more control.

So, here I am, digging into these stories that I find interesting, and that you do too, presumably (otherwise you wouldn't be reading them). So why not pick your brain about where I ought to head?

OK then.

On the Esmie front, what I have in mind for the coming week is to make some early stabs at trying to understand the justice system Esmie finds herself at the mercy of. I want to know how often juveniles are tried as adults, and under what circumstances. I also want to find out if, or in what ways, these numbers are distributed demographically. Meaning: are poor or minority kids more likely to be tried as adults? And, if I have time, I might do a little comparing between wealthy Johnson County and poorer Kansas City, Kansas, or KCMO (actually, I already have a bit of a line on this).

The other thing I could do is go back. As I've mentioned, I saved all of Esmie's blog entries before they were taken offline. I could start to piece together a story out of those.

What would you like to see?

For the Senate race in Missouri, I'm seeing all kinds of paths open up. As I said earlier, I want to know more about how Senator Jim and his Republican pals use technology to get power. I want to know more about this E-85 stuff, and Senator Jim's drive for more ethanol.

And, of course, I want to know more about Claire -- a lot more, and to that end I'll be going to an event she's hosting in the boonies later this week. If I get a chance, what should I ask her? Any burning curiousness out there?

I'm also fairly well connected in the local political scene, which is overwhelmingly Democrat, so I aim get a better sense of how she fits in with the local machine(s) -- and I have no doubt that she is. I had an interesting talk last week, for instance, with a local insider friend, and I learned there's a sizable political rift between the black and Hispanic community. This could have serious implications on the race because it threatens to break up a potential base for Claire. And I heard similar rumors about weakening union support for Democrats like her.

Do any of these leads interest you more than others? Or is there something else I'm missing that'd be fun to investigate?

debate diary: teacher's pet

On Thursday, I met with the teachers at De La Salle Education Center, to fill them in on my plan to start a debate program there. We gathered in the library. I was pleased to see that more than a few of them were white, somewhat old and, by all appearances, not particularly cool. Pleased because I've really been stressing about whether or not I'll able to connect with the kids. So when I saw all these old white people fairly nicely, I though a'ight, a'ight.

What was cool about the meeting was that there seemed to be no concer whatsoever about decorum and protocal. It was decidedly unbureaucratic. Which is why I chose to approach De La Salle about starting this thing. I steared clear of Kansas City School District schools because I know that it's entirely bureaucratic, that protocol and hierarchies and protection of the system trump all.

So I started telling the teachers what I had in mind, making a concerted effort to tone down my usual radical rhetoric (like, "what I want to do is take these kids out in the 'burbs, have them get in white kids' faces, and tell it like it is"). And right away they got into it and started suggesting alterations to the plan. They said I'd have a hell of a time getting kids to stay after school, that what I'd really need is a class during the school day (which is what I'd been thinking all along). They tossed out ideas. I could team up with a teacher in English and social studies. All the teachers could recruit kids who would get into debate, and they could send them all to a separate classroom to meet with me. These folks were ready to go!

On my way home, I called Jane, the coach at Central, and told her about my experience. She was impressed, and more than a little jealous. At Central, every idea has to be brooded over by handringing administrators. If a decision finally is made, it's got to be documented from all angles in an endless stream of paperwork before it can actually be carried through. But, more often than not, the idea is simply shot down.

I've only been working with high school students for a couple of years now. But it's clear that spontaneaity and adaptability are key to success.

So then yesterday I got a call from the woman I'd been working with at De La Salle. They've got it all figured out. I'll be working with one of their social studies teachers, and she's young and energetic and ambitious like me, and she's just totally pumped about it.

No paperwork, no waiting. Just, here's a here's a challenge, here's good idea. Let's do it.

esmie chronicles: it takes a village

My first reaction to news of fellow blogger Esmie Tseng being arrested for the brutal murder of her mother, Shu Yi Zhang, was that it's not right for this precocious 16-year-old to be charged for first-degree murder as an adult. Of course, I wasn't alone in feeling this way.

Last week, Jacob, a sort of digital pointman for a group known as "Friends of Esmie," sent me an e-mail with comments he'd gathered from adults who know Esmie, and who want to see her tried as a juvenile. Here are some of those testimonials:

It's a real shame, what happened to the poor girl. I'd like to know how she gets tried, but it seems all the websites that talk about her are written by idiots who think the whole thing is funny. She doesn't deserve to be tried as an adult, she's just a confused kid who did needs help.
John

As the administrator of the Church Of Lazlo Message Boards which Esmie frequented, I had the pleasure of talking to her every week. Having a little more inside information than the rest of you, I'm relatively certain there is much more to the story than what you're finding and writing. When the trial's over, those of you who've written about how Esmie is a murderer and a criminal and deserving of this whole thing, are going to feel like you owe this little girl an apology."
Church Of Lazlo Message Boards Administrator (Note: Church of Lazlo is a popular KC radio show)

Esmie is the kind of person you always want to include with your social activities. For our family this includes; camping, dinners, movies, holiday outings, family functions, sleep overs, etc. She always makes us proud. Her manners are excellent. Conversations are different, and unique. She always wants to help."
Linda S.

My name is Cindy Chang. I am an Emergency physician. My husband and I have four children who take piano lessons from the same teacher who taught Esmie Tseng. My oldest son is a year younger than Esmie and has always looked to Esmie as a role model in her talent and dedication to the piano. Esmie has always been a well-behaved, courteous, respectful child to our observations and I would be proud to have her as my child.
Cindy C. Chang, MD

I have known Esmie since Kindergarden. She caught my attention as an amazing child when she read to the class the first week. I'm happy that my daughter, Katie, is friends with Esmie as I saw her develop through grade school years and into high school. Esmie is one of Katie's close friends and a beautiful talented girl. As a parent I feel connected to her as one of my girls and love the girl she had become. I give my support to her at this time fully and with love.
Nancy O'Brien

Since we met Esmie about 1-l/2 years ago, she always treated us with respect being polite, well-mannered and engaging in conversation. She impressed us as someone who would go really far in life.
Ross & Ruth

Hello Esmie,
I am praying for you and trusting God to deliver you from all of this, i know what you did,if you actually did it, was at a moment that your mind had just blanked out, this happen to me at the age of 9 when my mother was whipping me with a leather belt, i came back to myself while my mother was whipping me,and she was saying "are you going to hit me again?" and i said no...but i did not know i hit her and i swear to God that i still don't recall ever hitting my mother. this is what i would call temperary insanity, honey i am standing for you and praying for you every moment of the day and night since i heard of this on tv. i don't think they should ever try you as an adult,and my reasons are clear... my story above explains this to you and them. it cam happen, but sweetie i am praying that God will intervene for you.i would love to be your friend. please pray yourself and believe God for the miracle, as Jesus said whatsoever you ask in my name i will do it.honey just keep your head up high and trust God.
Wayne W

When I talked with jacob a week or so ago, he told me that he would, without hesitation, open his home to Esmie, even though he has not met her, and only came to know about her through news reports about a grizzly crime. He prefaced this statement by carefully pointing out that he has children of his own, and he would never do anything to put them in harm's way.

This struck me as a very powerful statement, as do the ones above. Clearly, a community of people has been touched by this girl and her story, and this is something I want to explore much more deeply, as I am keenly interested in how communities foster succeeding generations, particularly during the teen years. I believe the ways in which we relate to teens, especially under the most extreme circumstances, can tell is a great deal about ourselves

What is your immediate reaction to the comments posted above?

esmie chronicles: jacob's ladder, part 3

Last weekend, Jacob write a letter to the district attorney for Johnson County, Kansas. He's a man in his mid-40s, and he'd never written to an elected official before. But the case of Esmie Tseng, a 16-year-old girl who stands accused of stabbing her mother to death, moved him to change his policy.

It wasn't just that. There were larger systemic and societal forces at play here. Throughout the weekend, he had heard people, random strangers, talk about Esmie's case, and they were all in agreement: It isn't right for this young girl to be tried as an adult.

In listening to this story during a recent chat with Jacob, I sensed that he was moved into action by what felt like a groundswell of common interest and concern, and his letter to Paul Morrison was a wholy democratic act, a gesture Jacob hoped would carry impacts beyond the parameters of this sad story about 16-year-old girl facing a long stretch in jail.

Then, after a brief procedural hearing in the case, Jacob sent me a rather lengthy e-mail in which he tried to explain some of his motivation, and my earlier hunches were confirmed.

Regardless of which where you stand on this case, whether you think Esmie ought to be tried as a juvenile or an adult, I hope that you will appreciate the spirit behind Jacob's words. These are feelings I have felt, feelings that have moved me into exciting but challenging circumstances.

I find it comforting to hear another person express similar feelings and desires. It makes me feel that I'm not alone, and there's power in that.

Jacob wrote:

There is a lot of crap that we see out there every night on our TV. Most of it revolves around such big issues that we don’t feel we can make a difference. Whether it’s a war in Iraq, Al Qaeda, the hanging Chad’s of Florida or the frustration of a verdict like in the OJ trial – hell what can one person do. In the scheme of life I think we all feel pretty powerless to make change / to right the wrongs of the world.

But yet look at Cindy Sheehan, whether you agree or disagree with her politics this one woman believed enough in an issue that it took a hurricane to get her off the news.
There’s an old quote:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has...

So Joe – for me it’s the issue that I feel I can make a difference and I believe its worth fighting for. If I could stop the war in Iraq I would – I just feel I can’t. So here I am.

the money's on talent

I got an e-mail from Jean Carnahan today (mass-mailed, of course). She's all excited about the latest poll data on the Missouri senate race. It's a dead heat, and the Dems are already crowing victory.

Well, I called a few of my subterranean friends yesterday, and, at least on the gossip level of this race, things don't seem quite so rosy.

Word is the Missouri Democratic Party is a disorganized mess. They're rarely meeting, and they haven't come close to meeting their fundraising goals. So far, it's looking like Claire McCaskill's campaign is going to ride, at least in the beginning, almost entirely on Big Democrat Money from Back East. More on that later...

Meantime, I decided to look at what evidence there is in the public record. I snooped around the FEC's website for a while last night and dug up Senator Jim's most recently quarterly report (Claire's aren't up yet). It's 574 pages long, so I skipped to the good stuff -- at least the stuff that looks good at first glance: The disbursements. That's where you can get an idea of how Talent's campaign is shaping up.

Well, Duh! He's gearing up to smash Claire.

Talent has doled out tens of thousands of dollars to high-powered GOP consultants and fundraisers. They're all heavily credentialed folks who are right there in the inner-circle of the Great Republican Election-Winning Machine.

Senator Jim spent a few thousand, for instance, on the services of Capital Campaigns of LA, run by Anne Dunsmore, who was head of finance for Bush's campaign in California (and, oddly, according to FEC documents, a "PGA Tour Caddy").

Our senator gave even more money -- about $100,000 to Steve Gordon and Associates, owned and operated by a man of the same name who was one of Bush's "Pioneers," meaning he pledged to raise $100,000 for the 2004 election.

This is all pretty much "no shit" stuff, I know. The Elephants don't want to lose Senator Jim's seat, and they're rallying the troops. But, so far all anyone seems to be talking about is the meaningless dead-heat scenario.

And here's a tidbit I found fascinating, which ought to be talked about:

Talent spent $31,350 on "research" research from American Viewpoint of Alexandria, Virginia. I poked around on their website and was delighted to see that our recent governor's race was one of their case studies for success.

Obviously, Claire doesn't come off looking very good in this story:

When Matt Blunt first decided to run for Governor in early 2003, he was planning on running against a very unpopular incumbent whose job approval was under 30%...

(But then Claire won the primary)

The day after the primary the Missouri press focused on McCaskill as a giant killer and the new front-runner in the race for Governor. The premise of Matt Blunt’s vision for Missouri did not change, but the comparison of his background to McCaskill’s did. Through a post-primary benchmark and dial testing of potential advertising, several things became apparent:

1. Matt Blunt’s background as a naval officer was a strong selling point and demonstrated the leadership necessary to be Governor.

2. Claire McCaskill was very vulnerable on issues dealing with past personal tax issues as well as dealing with her husband’s nursing homes.

3. While Matt Blunt’s values matched closely with out-state Missourians, Claire McCaskill’s did not.

4. The three key swing groups were women, suburban voters and seniors. American Viewpoint conducted extensive sub-group analyses of the voting blocs to identify key issues that would move them to the Blunt side.

This all reminds me of a road trip I took in fall 2004, when I listened over and over to a radio commercial Claire ran in rural Missour-uh.

But I'll save that story for a later post...