Page 76 - ThePhoenix1984-85

Page 4lWe.tem Muyland CoUegeJFebruary n, 1985 Editorial Journalistic vision Certainly I have had the time to cultivate and inventory my own set of values and priorities. And as befitting the "growing-up" process, no sooner do I embrace an ideology, expecting to hold it forever, than I stumble on reasons to discard it. Considering a career in journalism is not unlike that. I once thought that "being a writer" was akin to a sacred calling. Fiction writers, I reasoned, were not among those chosen. Writers of imagined time and people were self- absorbed indLviduals who wasted their creative gifts by indulging themselves in their own selfish pleasures. Non-fiction writers, on the other hand. were a noble and righteous lot who chose to live out their lives courting the edge of poverty for the pure joy that comes from purveying the Truth -- .Joumallsta. Real writers. Chain-smokers and hard drinkers. Souls driven by some thereal calling which they had no time to explore. Journalists obeyed some blind compulsion to do good, to be Right. The product of journalist was ngJ:.fame or money, but Truth. If he or she were lucky, a jouinalist might merit some fleeting brush with fame. But the best he could hope for was that his reward would be eternal. I no longer believe that. Cynicism, and reality have clouded my view of "paradise journalism." And Iwhile r know that it has never existed except in meorv, it is still an idealworthy of holding fast. People are the true America As Gustav Holdst once declared: "A thing worth doing is worth doing badly." Joumalism is worth doing. Sometimes it's done badly. Maybe even often. But when it's done right. it is, have discovered the "ulti- suggestions unless they had indeed, a. thing of beauty . Editor, mate" economic system. It is carefully examined the issues .The role that ttle Mass. Media (print) should play in our Once again the U.S. .Catho- a system that depends on a first. One may disagree with society" is a diverse as the entities of, those who make up our. lie bishops have expressed person's greed, selfishness, these succesuons. as they society and our world. The voices heard should be those of concern over a particular as- and competition to work. It are indeed debatable, but dissentors, radicals, vegetarians, children, Big Business, pect of society, and once exalts a person's individuality that does not make the _bish- lobstermen, Hindus, Eskimos, and even college students. The again they have been unlairty- and sacrifices a person's col- ops stupid. If charity does media needs to be a mirror, refl.acting what is going o_n and attacked,' since ~e attackers lectivity. Co-operation i~. re- blind to the point 01 stupidity supplying the details necessary for complete understandlnq by do not recognize the real placed by competition. then let me be stupid, be- the deaf, the blind, the man across the street. -and the child issue of the pastoral letter. Capitalism cares little for such cause being charitable is far asleep upstairs. . The latest attack is from C. "socialist" concepts as social more important than being I want print media to not just compete with television and Lloyd Hart, who evidently felt service and human need. smart. The bishops don't care radio, I want to be far and above either 01 them. "Reading" is a he had to use such phrases "We, the PEOPLE, of the what economic system domi- solitary and personal experience -- a mysterious act that has no as "obviously the bishops do United States of America', in nates the country - as long other cultural equivalent, and is in danger of becoming a lost not realize ... ," "once again order to form a more perfect as the system respects art. like the scribes of ancient Egypt, literacy could eventually one wonders if the bishops union, establish justice pro- human dignity and human belong to an elite group and the consquencea of such a thing know that ... ," ..... charity again mote the general welfare for freedom. They may not be so- happening we have already seen, The print media writers have blinds good sense to the ourselves and our posterity." called "experts" on econom- their work cut out for them. -- Eileen Fisher, guest editorialist point of stupidity ... ," and, li- This, of course, is part of the lcs, but they are "experts" on nalty, ", .it is ab~nd~ntly clear Preamble to our Constitution. human dignity, The bishops and The that the~Catholic bishops of Go to a ghetto, Mr. Hart, estab- do not condemn the capitalism of as it parts have t711 me. th<_lt we only such, Ameriea,efther,do. not unde_r- stand our ecooormc and poht- usned justice and promoted which are an affront to this Phoenix ieal systems; or !hey reality. the general welf.are. Go to an dignity and the right to speak si":lPIr, Deny freedom. unemployment Mr. hne, refuse to the bishops recognize Hart, himself had that Editor-in-Chief . BiIl Mann as if Mr. Hart and the bishops all and tell me justice we have up and our most fundamental the answers, pro- is lost. fre~om and established Managing Editor.. . Kelly Connor were economic morons. But mated the general welfare. This country was not Layout Editor . . C. lloyd Hart let us examine who really Or, rather than tell me, tell the founded of, by, or for' capital- Copy Editor ... .. Jonathan Slade recognizes reality: Mr. Hart, or people in the ghettos and in ism. It was founded of the News Editor .. . Leo Ryan the Catholic bishops. the lines. Reality is not ec!?- PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, for Features Editor : Barbara Abel No economic system is per- nomic theory - reality IS the PEOPLE. If the well-being Sports Editor... . Elizabeth'Leik fect, ~ c~it~ism is n? P~OPLE. This is the reality the of the people is threatened, Photography Editors Stacey Pucci, Margaret Gemski, exception. BeIng Imperfect, It bishops are concerned about, no matter who or how many, it Ursula Wiedman n is therefore subject to both and it is far more important is the right and duty of Ameri- Business Manager ..... .. Craig Sarsony criticism and improvement. than anything Adam Smith cans to say that something is Advertising Manager.. .. Carol O'Brien The bishops are ~ot. passing might have added to the sum wrong, and to peacefully cor- Reporting Staff Steven RossmaR sentence on capltatism . and of human knowledge. How rect it. This country is not ~iJI Grabowski, Cyndi Schllfer, Melissa Renehan, Hillery Hansen, Sandra ~v~~~~~~ h~~~:~ir~~hai~~ ~a~nlotP~~!~einth~i~d~~~ntcit ~~~ec~"w~~~e~sakfss i~~~ea~~~ Cartson, Chris Ginther, Rhonda fore a. c