Scott Bush

I saw this on XKCD today:

(XKCD is a great web comic, but probably won’t interest you if you’re not a 1) programmer, 2) mathematician, or 3) a generalized geek of some kind.)

This comic struck a chord with me because I’ve often wondered this exact same thing. Calling Asian countries “the East” and Europe and North America are “the West” never made sense to me. First, it shoehorns some countries, like Iceland and Australia—not to mention entire continents like Africa and South America—into groups to which they might not belong. Second, cardinal directions are completely a matter of perspective, as shown so clearly in the comic.

I know that “East” and “West,” in their capitalized senses, have more to do with ideological divisions than longitudinal ones. The concept of “Eastern” vs. “Western” philosophies is interesting, whether it be in medicine, diet, religion, art, or any of a dozen areas. But couldn’t there be a better way to draw a distinction than overloading these geographical terms? I don’t pretend to be smart enough to suggest any, but I will note that these sorts of labels can change. Remember the term “third world country” (which I always thought meant countries founded after World War II, but maybe not)? It’s now better to call them “developing nations.” So it’s possible to change these labels. If we did, maybe XKCD can get back to really incredible comics, like this map of the universe on a logarithmic scale).

As you may recall from an earlier post, I volunteer with Food Lifeline, a terrific organization in Shoreline. One of their big events each year is the National Association of Letter Carrier’s Food Drive. You get a plastic bag in your mail a few days before the second Saturday in May, and you fill it with canned- or non-perishable food and put it out by your mailbox. Then your letter carrier picks it up and brings it to their station.

Once again, I was team leader at the North City Station in Shoreline. Hank, the other team leader, was there again as well; 2008 marked our third year at the station together. We were lucky enough to have a number of returning volunteers, too. Speaking of volunteers, let’s see how well I do remember their names: Steve, Taft, Ben, Jeff, Anthony, and Cody on first shift; Scott, Wanda, Mark, Jody, Christina, Carol, Lynn, Thomas, Leslie, Tanner, Devin, Ryan, Sonja and a few others (including Crystal!). Special thanks to Janet, the station supervisor for her help as well.

Together we unloaded tons of food: literally. We filled one semi and most of another with totes (huge cardboard boxes), each weighing between 900 and 1000 pounds. In 2007 this station brough in 35,500 pounds of food; this year it probably approached the same amount but we won’t know for a few days. That’s excellent given the tough economy right now: thanks to everyone for their generous donation of food, money, and effort on Saturday.

Sunday morning we all piled into the Mariott’s ballroom eager to hear the results of individual write-off competitions. Before we did, though, we were treated to an array of pre-annoucements announcements. They included a slideshow of student photography submitted to the competition (and there were some amazing shots); the student journalist of the year and the runners-up; and a video enticing us to attend the fall JEA convention in St. Louis.

Again, many the Washington schools grouped together (though this time much more loosely) to cheer one another on. We were so boisterous that the announcer (H.L. Hall, who’s been announcing individual award-winners since I was a student!) paused after each Washingtonian was announced. Given the rapidity with which H.L. reads these names (there were 714 winners from 1869 participants to get through) that’s pretty impressive. In my years attending and chaperoning these conventions, I’ve never seen such an impressive display of solidarity among the schools from any state. I counted 17 separate schools from Washington whose students took home awards in the write-offs.

Among them were many Hawkeye students, I’m proud to say. Vince has compiled a complete list in a press release that I’ll get and post soon. I was pleased to learn that a student from Wenatchee’s Apple Leaf, where my friend Jeff Nusser advises, whom I talked to about the Newspaper Layout competition, received an honorable mention. Good for her!

With checkout complete and bags secured in a hotel storeroom, the afternoon lay ahead of us. Vince, Tim, and Mark took a few students to watch the cumbersomely-named The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim do battle with—and lose 4 to 2—to the Seattle Mariners. Not being a baseball fan, I took a contingent of seven students on two short bus rides to end up at The Block at Orange, a big outdoor mall. Sure, sure—another mall. But it was something to do and the food options were much better (finally got some sushi).

The trip home felt short, but that may have been due to the fact most of us were sleeping on the bus to LAX or on the plane home. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the kind gifts the Hawkeye students chipped in to get each of us chaperones: I was given an excellent sand hackey sack and some Disney playing cards; Vince a Godfather quote book; and Tim a Japanese cookbook. All gifts showed generosity and a knowledge of what we enjoy. So thank you everyone.

I’m looking forward to St. Louis in the Fall and Phoenix next year! I’m also looking forward to a convention that provides free wifi access, as this one didn’t and that makes posting a blog for parents much harder!

My trite comment about the snow back home has backfired, as the beautiful SoCal weather has disappeared, replaced by grey clouds and cold breeze. In short, it’s like a normal April in Seattle today.

I thought it’d be a good time to explain what makes these conventions worth coming to. It’s not the hotel pools, though the number of swimsuited high schoolers there would make you think otherwise (none from the Hawkeye’s contingent, though). It’s the quality of thought and dedication of the educators and professionals here to teach these energetic and eager young journalists. I attended discussions of student press rights and responsible journalism, as well as more technical session on “new media” in journalism (slide shows with audio, video on websites, etc.) and Adobe Bridge and Camera RAW format. These are the sorts of educational experiences that make all the travel, late nights, junk food, and rambunctious—and often screaming—high schoolers worth while.

Saturday also brought the first of the two awards ceremonies: group honors. As usual, the crowd first listened to the NSPA presenter (Washington’s own Logan Aimone from Wenatchee, who replaced Tom Rolnicke) introduce the head table, which included the new head of the Student Press Law Center. The SPLC has been defending student journalists for decades, including the Hawkeye circa 1995 for some incident about photographers photographing an on-campus fight. The crowd chipped in and raised just over $2500 to support the important work of the SPLC.

I won’t keep you in the suspense as we were: the Hawkeye placed 10th in the Best of Show category for papers publishing 13-16 pages! Congratulations to all the staffers who contributed to this accomplishment!

Washington state was well represented. Schools from Gig Harbor, Puyallup, Mt. Si, Hanford, Wenatchee and many other locations also took honors in their categories. Advisors and editors from the schools had met during the convention and decided to all gather in the same corner of the ballroom, thereby giving us more concentrated volume when any of our massive group won. It was quite a fun experience and always an honor to be numbered among such quality publications.

The remainder of the evening was small group outings: some to dinners, others to shopping, and a sizable contingent to Disneyland. Tomorrow’s our last day. Saddened by this, Mark, Vince, and I drown our sadness in a donut.

Saturday brought the first set of sessions, write-off competitions, and more enjoyment of the Anaheim weather. (This was made more poignant by the news that back home was blanketed with 3-5 inches of snow. In April. Late April.)

I only attended one session on photography in a large ballroom, but not because I wasn’t interested in others. They were simply full. For the first time in over 15 conventions, they had “bouncers” refusing to allow students down hallways to get into overly-full session rooms. Definitely a problem, and really not fair to students who were shut of out not only of the “popular” sessions, but just about all of them.

The coolest part of my day was catching up with the other Washington-state journalism people I’ve come to know at state and national conventions. Included among these is my former high school classmate Jeff Nusser, now advisor of the Apple Leaf in Wenatchee. Another plus: spending time with two students–one Hawkeye, one Apple Leaf—preparing them for their first write-off competition in newspaper layout. I participated in that category as a student and have judged it many times since.

Vince DeMiero, the Hawkeye advisor, and I volunteered to judge write-offs; it’s another convention tradition. We had dinner on JEA in the banquet room that then became a hub of activity for the next three hours as journalism educators, professionals in the field, and I poured over student’s entries. Vince and I judged Literary Magazine Layout, Lit Mag Illustration, and Lit Mag Poetry—something of a departure from our usual categories but it was quite fun.

Meanwhile, fellow chaperons Mark Isakson and Tim Cashman took students to various locations for dinner. One destination was a sushi place “nearby,” only about three miles away. Not sure of the whole story, but no sushi was had but substitutes were found, I’m sure. Continuing another Hawkeye convention tradition, no students attended the dance.

Sessions again tomorrow as well as the first awards ceremony, this one for newspapers and yearbooks. Individual honors are awarded at Sunday’s ceremony. Following that is our evening group activities: Disneyland for some, and other less-animated fun for others.

Once again I’m privileged to be chaperoning a group of young journalists a JEA/NSPA Spring convention. This spring the convention location is Anaheim, CA—also known as the city that exists because of Disney.

Thursday was a travel day. I met the group at school and we piled aboard the schoolbus after all the typical delays. After check-in, security, and an hour spent in SeaTac’s new shopping/”dining” extravaganza, we were in the air and in LA two hours later. Another long bus ride after that we were checked into the Sheraton Park Hotel, right across from the convention hotel, the Mariott.

We made it to the opening keynote and I’m glad we did. After a few speeches from the organizing committee and last year’s “journalist of the year” recipient, Louis Sinco took the stage.

Sinco snapped the iconic photograph of the Iraq war, circa 2004, the “Marlboro Marine.” At the time he was embedded with the Marines for the LA Times. There’s quite a bit of story about how the photo came to grace the cover of 150 newspapers shortly after he transmitted it, but I won’t go into that here. But, due to the popularity of the photo, Sinco’s editors at the LA Times sent him, a year and a half later, to Kentucky to follow-up with Lance Corporal Blake Miller. The former Marine was suffering from Post-Tramautic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) and Sinco, despite his journalistic integrity not to get involved with a story, intervened and took the suicidal Miller to a PTSD counseling center. All of this was documented in a 13-minute slideshow of Sinco’s photos with Miller’s voice-over. Pretty moving stuff.

Afterward we walked to Downtown Disney, the latest capitalistic extravaganza sponsored by the world’s richest mouse. We split up and ate at the various (overpriced) restaurants and checked things out. My favorite: the huge Lego store. Back to the hotel and bed, ready to attend sessions Friday.