“Ask an informed American citizen today to ruminate on Dallas or Atlanta or Phoenix, and you will probably get small talk, lukewarm pleasantries, and a brief conversation. Ask them what they think about New Orleans, and you are in for not only an opinionated retort, but a sentimental smile, a scolding finger, a treasured memory, a shaking head, or an exasperated shrug over the course of a conversation spanning the spectrum of human experience. This enigmatic capacity to rile and inspire, to scandalize and charm, to liberate and fascinate, helps explain why thousands of people have rejected the amenities and opportunities of the lukewarm Dallases and Atlantas and Phoenixes of the world, and chosen instead to cast their lot with this troubled old port — embracing all its splendors and dilemmas, all its booms and busts, all its joys and tragedies.” ~Richard Campanella, Bienville’s Dilemma

How does it feel, New Orleans?

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I think Haiti is a place that suffers so much from neglect that people only want to hear about it when it’s at its extreme. And that’s what they end up knowing about it. ~Edwidge Danticat

UPDATE 2/7/10: Anderson Cooper is en route back to Haiti with his team as per cameraman Neil Hallsworth, as of 8:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

UPDATE 2/4/10: Agence France-Presse reports that the death toll has reached 200,000.

I’ve been just as glued to the Haiti coverage as most news junkies have been, and was duly impressed by the incredible work of Anderson Cooper and his CNN team (Ivan Watson, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Gary Tuchman, Neil Hallsworth, Charlie Moore, Vlad Duthiers and Soledad O’Brien), as were many others. The big connection for me between Haiti and the United States was not only the fact that it is damn near impossible not to see images of Katrina in one’s mind when watching this coverage, but also that in times like these, when the American media really steps it up (and it wasn’t just CNN who did so by any means), I am at my absolute proudest of this rebellious, fearless young country. With all of its flaws, we really do have a press like no other. The work that has been done across the board has been amazing.

Having said that, I’ve heard some complaints about how much attention has been given to the victims of the quake (and its 50+ aftershocks, which to my knowledge have not stopped)–despite the fact that it’s left approximately 110,000 dead and 609,000 homeless–because of all the poverty and strife here at home. I hear that. However, again I have to urge people to not only remember that we are a global community, but to also remember the outpouring of love and support we received in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the outpouring of international aid we received in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and that we owe it to ourselves as well as the rest of the world to show the same compassion and respect for other nations and to put it right back into the global community. Do unto others, people. Do unto others. 80% of the Haitian population was below the poverty line before the quake. They need more than they’ve been given. They deserve more than they’ve been given.

It should also be noted that somewhere between 4500 and 5500 Americans are currently missing or dead in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas–to put that in perspective, that’s more than those who died on 9/11. It’s more than the death tolls reported for either Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan)–possibly combined. This is a Haitian tragedy, therefore it is a global tragedy–but it is also an American tragedy in a very big way; make no mistake.

This event has certainly made me understand how people tire of politics. I’ve been addicted to this one story for weeks, which is not good, and I’ve found it very difficult to engage as the pundits continue to lob attacks at one another and the political process reminds us all just how slow it can be. However, it is our political system that allows for the remarkable free press we so enjoy, so with all our bickering and corruption and scandal, perhaps this should make me realize even more why I loved politics in the first place. Perhaps I’m looking at this all wrong.

To help Haiti the fastest, please text HAITI to 20222 to donate $10.00 USD to the Clinton/Bush Haiti Fund. You can also learn how to use your routine online auction shopping to benefit CARE International.

For more information on how you can help, follow me on Twitter @TheGrottoTweets and visit www.cnn.com/impact.

You can see an incredible compilation of all of Anderson Cooper’s reports from Haiti in addition to many from his team at All Things Anderson. Thanks to them for the clip below.

Anderson Cooper for CNN, Port-au-Prince: “May God receive them with open arms.”

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“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!” ~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836

Hello, everyone! I hope everyone celebrating Chanukah this week is taking the time to enjoy and having a wonderful reunion with family and friends.

It’s that time of year again…for those of you who still have holiday shopping to do, I encourage you to look at a page I made for an online auction site called Triple Clicks, Christmas Shopping with a Conscience. Bear in mind that it’s just dressed up for Christmas right now–you can shop there all year round; anytime you might want to get something from Ebay, you can check Triple Clicks as well.

Triple Clicks is a way to give back even if you don’t think you can afford it. It is a gigantic web mall that contains mostly private seller listings, and offers you the opportunity to sell items you have that you no longer need, but unlike Ebay and other auction sites, a portion of the proceeds goes to support CARE International.

From site: “TC is a bargain hunter’s paradise. Browse thousands of quality used items including collectibles and items available nowhere else. New items added daily. ‘Haggle’ for the best price and snatch bargains for pennies on the dollar. TC makes it quick, simple and easy to sell the stuff you no longer need for cash! Use TC as your online garage sale to clean out your closets, attic and garage! Easily list and sell dozens of miscellaneous items.”

That’s right–do your discount shopping and help to fight global poverty at the same time. What could be better than that?

As always, you can see what I’m up to at Laurie Beth’s Grotto. You can also check out the site overview and Twitter.

Season’s Greetings! <3

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“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
~Martin Niemöller

When I was a college student, I had the privilege of attending various free events that supported causes I believed in, many of which did not “involve” me directly as a white, straight, Protestant: LGBT rights awareness, racial harmony, Holocaust remembrances. Each time, I was truly disheartened to notice that I was usually the only person in the room who did not fit into the group being discussed. My disappointment was usually met with confusion by the people being represented; they considered me extremely naive to think a straight person would show up to a LGBT event, or a gentile to Holocaust Remembrance Day, or that a white girl would take a class on Africa.

In the United States, we are constantly hearing the phrase, “take care of our own.” In times of war when civilian casualties are unavoidable, certainly, this is often necessary. However, recent studies have shown us that in general practice, it doesn’t work. Mother Nature–or God, or Allah, or Hashem, or somebody–ensures that it doesn’t work. It isn’t a bleeding heart agenda that compels me to ask people to think about those who are half a world away; it’s not just compassion–it’s common sense. Interdependent race that we are, a species of international dependence and international travel, no force of any kind remains half a world away. HIV/AIDS certainly didn’t, and that’s why Dr. Nathan Wolfe does the work that he does, and that’s why he’s an extraordinary man.

I first heard about Dr. Wolfe as most others did, because of his involvement with CNN’s Planet in Peril 2: Battle Lines, which aired last December. Dr. Wolfe is a virus hunter. He was interviewed in the jungles of Cameroon by CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, where he explained the work he is doing studying zoonotics, or viruses that are transmitted from animals to humans. HIV is a zoonotic, and resulted from starving individuals in Africa–and scientists are almost positive that the transmission occurred in Cameroon–forced into the woods to hunt and kill simians, or “bush meat,” to survive. Eventually it spread globally and created the AIDS pandemic, killing plenty of our own. There are more zoonotic viruses lurking in African primates, and conditions in many parts of Africa have not improved–in Cameroon, many still survive on bush meat. Since it is so often said that if we do not learn from our mistakes, we’re doomed to repeat them, when will the next pandemic occur? Dr. Wolfe has taken it upon himself to head the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative, and attempt to answer that question.

No one can or should deny the impact that HIV/AIDS has had on the West. The intense effect it’s had on the gay community, their national identity and their perceived role in our society is staggering on its own. Of course, that is hardly the extent of it–AIDS can hardly be considered a “gay disease,” as the fastest rising at-risk group for HIV infection is heterosexual women. The crisis continues to rage in the United States despite declining media attention–2009 studies concluded that the percentage of the population of Washington D.C. that are infected with HIV/AIDS rivals that of Uganda. We are not so different, so superior. Clearly, it’s not just a moral compulsion that should make us want to care about what happens to Africa; it’s that if we don’t, it will come back to bite us in full force. That’s the way it should be. If you pay attention, it’s astonishing how often compassion goes hand-in-hand with pragmatism.

One of the most poignant examples for me of how this crisis is as close to home as any other, is the story behind the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the deaths of Elizabeth and Ariel Glaser. In 1981, Elizabeth Glaser–the late wife of actor/director Paul Michael Glaser–contracted HIV from a blood transfusion while giving birth to their daughter, Ariel. By the time she learned of her infection, she had transferred the virus to Ariel through breastfeeding, and had another child, Jake, who contracted the virus in utero, before his birth in 1984. Ariel died in 1988 at the age of seven. In her grief, and in her desperate need to protect her son, Elizabeth founded EGPAF that same year. She revolutionized the public’s perception of pediatric AIDS and HIV/AIDS in general, inspired research and raised funding. Elizabeth Glaser died in 1994. She was 47.

It doesn’t get much more white-bread, apple-pie loving America than the Glaser family. Yet it was a pattern of poverty and disease half a world away that resulted in their deaths.

I’m not blaming the West entirely for Africa’s problems. However, if we adopt the attitude that a failure of such a magnitude is a human failure and not just an African failure, that paradigm shift could change the global patterns of disease, hunger, and prejudice. So many Western lives would be different if people in Cameroon that most in the Western world never consider hadn’t been starving, if they hadn’t been forced to eat bush meat, if that virus hadn’t become what it is. If we can take advantage of this connection and make it more positive, instead of making the same mistake twice, who knows what we can achieve. I think if we really want to make this generation count and make our greatest investment into the future, Africa is really the golden key. It’s such a beautiful, diverse continent that is so bountiful with resources, but there is so much work to be done. I think Westerners really need to take more of an interest in that continent’s potential, because so many people just see it as this big ball of strife that can’t be fixed, but it isn’t true.

We were told to “take care of our own.” It didn’t work. Ariel Glaser died. Elizabeth Glaser died. We need to try a different tactic.

Also, might I suggest that Africa is our own? For me, it’s enough that people die elsewhere. I never bought into the idea that children are worth less because they’re born on a different rock. That said, I understand that it’s difficult for people to wrap their brains around their own struggle, let alone those on another continent that never directly affect them. So I’m not judgmental if it isn’t enough for you that people are suffering in far off lands–I’m here to remind you that Ariel Glaser could have been your kid.

If AIDS didn’t happen to land in your backyard, I’m happy for you. But the next pandemic might. The universe already responded to our callousness with a massive, international crisis that changed us forever–a massive, international hint. Let’s not miss it.

You can follow Dr. Nathan Wolfe on Twitter @virushunter.

For more information on how you can help, here is a list of excellent sources:
Global Viral Forecasting Initiative
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières)
*Condition Critical – run by Doctors without Borders, it is the single best web-based resource I have found for voices from the war in Eastern Congo. In DRC, where rape is a weapon of war, HIV/AIDS takes on a whole new meaning.
AVERT
UNAIDS
Gay Men’s Health Crisis
Keep A Child Alive
ONE
amFAR
International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care

If I’ve missed any of your favorites, feel free to put them in the comments.

The Grotto Blog by Lauren E. Moccio is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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“You get to make a living; you give to make a life.” ~Winston Churchill

One of my co-workers brought in a “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” box today, so I thought I’d blog about it in case anybody was unaware of this wonderful tradition.

UNICEF started their “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” program in 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when five fantastic children decided to bring decorated milk cartons along with them when they went trick-or-treating on Halloween, collecting donations to send to children who were suffering in post-war Europe. They donated their $17.00 total (not too shabby for 1950) to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. Shortly afterward it became a nationwide tradition, and UNICEF started distributing little orange boxes to schools to be given to the students so that they could participate. According to Wikipedia, over $119 million USD has been collected through “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” since its inception. Canada joined the party in 1955, and they have collected $96 million CAN since. Hong Kong has raised $6 million HK since they joined the tradition in 2001.

If your children did not bring orange boxes home from school, you may order them here, or if you run out of time you can pick them up at participating Pier 1, Hallmark and Baskin Robbins locations. UNICEF also provides this canister wrapper so you can make your own.

Once you’ve collected your donation, learn how to donate here. You can do so online, by phone, by mail, or at a Coinstar® center.

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“Journalism is an act of faith in the future.” ~Ann Curry

UPDATE 10/05/09: Anderson Cooper spoke to Broadcast & Cable: “There’s a huge disconnect with the American people paying attention in Afghanistan,” says CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who recently spent a week embedded with the military at Jaker, a remote forward operating base in Helmand province. “These are not stories people are watching. Frankly, when I was there, “60 Minutes” was all over the place. CNN has a full-time correspondent there. There are people telling the stories. But I know for a fact that not a lot of Americans, no matter what they say, are interested or are willing to spend a lot of time watching. I think polls reflect that, ratings reflect that.” [...] “Every time I’ve gone to Afghanistan and been embedded with troops, they have the same message, which is, folks back home have no idea what’s going on here,” says CNN’s Cooper. In 2006, Cooper spent several days with the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan. “They all told me the same story,” he says. “They would be back home for two weeks of R&R, and they were on a plane or in a bar and somebody would ask them, ‘Where are you serving?’ And when they said Afghanistan, the response was always, ‘Well, at least you’re not in Iraq,’ as if Afghanistan was incredibly easy. Every time I’ve been over there, the [soldiers] I have been with could not have been happier to have someone [telling] their stories.”

The article also noted that: “An Associated Press reporter lost a foot in an IED attack in August, the same month that CBS News Radio correspondent Cami McCormick was seriously injured during an attack in Logar province that killed an American soldier.”

I’m a member of a discussion website on which the political tide tends to lean heavily to the right. I thought I’d pick out some commentary to post here. None of the links are actually present in the discussion except the link to CPJ and the final one (to a CNN article on the final decision regarding media coverage of flag-draped coffins).

One of the more intelligent conservative posters surprised me with the following inanity:

“Back when Prs. Bush was the Commander in Chief, the incompetent press and many others in the anti-war movement complained about the policy against publishing pictures of flag draped coffins. The charge was that Prs. Bush was trying to sanitize the horror of war by keeping the powerful image from the public view.

So, now that Prs. Obama has been the Commander in Chief for 9 months, where are the calls for a change of policy? Where is the incompetent press’s accusations of cover up and prohibition? Where are the complaints from anti war activists?

While Prs. Bush was in office, the issue was elevated to a Constitutional Crisis… but now that they can’t use the images as a weapon against the president, they have just let it drop.”

Bear in mind that I do consider this guy to be one of the more intelligent posters.

One of the less intelligent conservatives came up with this genius in response:

“Well, since they drool all over Obama and act like adoring little puppies when he’s around they’ve conveniently forgotten that our soldiers are still in two wars and still dying. They seem to be dying at an even greater rate in Afghanistan and we don’t really hear much about that. Remember how the left screamed about the accidental deaths of civilians, too? Well, they’re still dying under Obama’s watch but they’re all strangely quiet now. I’ve come to the conclusion that they only care about people when they can make use of them.”

This is my response:

“That’s because you’re all watching Fox instead of CNN.

Anderson Cooper spent the entire week following Labor Day in Helmand Province, Afghanistan to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11–going on patrol with marines, giving them a platform to send messages to their loved ones, reporting on the statistics, reporting on the fact that they need more troops and that the war is not going well, giving marines a chance to talk to the cameras and tell us what’s really going on there. They showed that while tons of Americans think they’re over there in fancy bases with all the comforts of home, they’re actually living in tents, covered in dust with H1N1 lurking (which Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta both caught while they were there), with nothing but MREs for food and a few dumbbells for entertainment.

Dr. Gupta went inside the army hospital and showed our incredible military working on those civilians you mentioned and saving their lives every day.

Michael Ware, also of CNN, has been living in Iraq and Afghanistan for years reporting on these wars, and he didn’t change his technique just because Washington changes its colors. He’s still there. His vehicle was almost hit by an IED when he was shooting a piece for AC360.

The ratings were horrific. Nobody watched.

The “incompetent press” does what they have to do to get the advertising dollars to send these journalists over there, and real journalism doesn’t seem to making as much money as Glenn Beck’s Howard Beale-style rants.

Business wise, I tip my hat to Fox. They’re doing incredibly well. Bill O’Reilly’s demo ratings (ratings in the 25-54 age demographic, the target audience for advertisers) regularly beat CNN and MSNBC in total viewers. You can’t argue with their business model. It’s stellar. They’re raking it in. God bless ‘em.

But I suggest you take a look at the website for the Committee to Protect Journalists at www.cpj.org to see what the “incompetent press” has really been fighting against, with no help from Americans. We lost 120 journalists in Operation Iraqi Freedom. They’re out there, putting their lives on the line every day. Because of them, the information is out there, it just doesn’t seem to be very lucrative because, left or right, Democrat or Republican, Americans don’t seem to care.

Is it really the media’s fault? If reporting on the wars got killer ratings and raked in millions of advertising dollars, how fast do you think they’d have that business up and running and on the air? Yesterday, that’s when. And to their credit, people like Anderson Cooper use their star power to make sure it happens anyway, for the few hundred thousand of us who are watching.

So I don’t know if people drooling all over Obama are the problem, because while there are always blind followers and it’s never good, I doubt the four million people who watch “The O’Reilly Factor” every night (an absolutely unprecedented number for a cable audience) are the same people you’re referencing.

The cable news audience leans heavily to the right for whatever reason, and Cooper does an entire week that is all marines, all the time–and it was some of the best reporting his team has done these past few years, which is saying something because they’re good–and he can’t scrape together 500,000 viewers because apparently whatever Greta van Susteren had going on at 10:00 was more entertaining.

I don’t know why Americans don’t pay attention to international news. I don’t know how to fix it. But there are journalists in the field with their necks on the line to provide you with the information you claim “we don’t really hear much about,” so the only reason you’re not hearing about it is because you’re not paying attention, along with millions more just like you.

But the second Glenn Beck threatens to shoot himself on the 7:00 news, I’m sure you’ll be tuning in. Keep watching Fox and let me know when the flag draped coffins show up. I won’t be holding my breath.”

Later in the thread, a voice of reason:

“I might be completely wrong about this but I thought lifting the ban was under consideration a couple of (or more) months ago but there were conflicting opinions about whether the families of the fallen should have a say so about their loved one’s casket being photographed. I watched the arrival of our dead soldiers on the news every night during the war in Vietnam. Those images carried a lot of weight when it came to reminding the public of the true horrors of war.”

My response to this:

“You’re 100% correct.

I believe the first coverage that was allowed was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where my cousin was stationed during his last few years in the service (he’s now the fire captain down there).

President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates decided that the decision on this media coverage should be left up to the families, as it’s the same policy that was already in place for airing the services at Arlington.

The media coverage is allowed when the family permits it; it just gets terrible ratings, so we don’t see it. See above.

Here’s the article on Dover and the final decision.”

Feel free to discuss in the comments section. Who’s at fault for the misinformation here? The media or the American public?

UPDATE: The original poster then clarified: “Laurie, actually, that is why I separate the “incompetent press” from the members of the press who actually do their jobs. Yes, there are actually many examples of “competent” and even excellent journalism out there. Thanks for giving us these examples.”

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“Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another’s pain, life is not in vain.” ~Helen Keller

I’m back to blogging after a death in the family. Thank you for your patience.

September 10th was The Trevor Project Day. This day purposely coincides with World Suicide Prevention Day, and the 35th annual National Suicide Prevention Week 2009, which is this week: September 6th-September 12th, and is sponsored by the American Association of Suicidology. The reason Trevor Day is so important is because it is organized by The Trevor Project, the only 24/7 toll-free, confidential suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth in the United States. I feel that this organization is a national treasure and gets too little attention. Please take this opportunity to take notice of the organization if you have not already, and help to publicize it through your own avenues, whether they be your personal website, blogs, tweets, what have you. This is a resource worth its weight in gold.

Most importantly, if you are reading this and you need help right now, or know someone who does, CALL 1-866-4-U-TREVOR.

For non-time sensitive, non-urgent questions, there is a “Dear Abby” style page on the website called “Dear Trevor” with a secure contact form through which you can submit a question and have it answered by professionals. You can find it here.

The Trevor Project has a hard battle to fight. According to the organization:

“Suicide is one of the top three causes of death among young people (15 to 24-year-olds). Only accidents and homicides occur more frequently as causes of death among young people.

LGBTQ youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.

LGBTQ youth who come from a rejecting family are up to nine times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.”

…Nine. I don’t even know how to wrap my brain around those numbers.

This is a national crisis. The Trevor Project might very well be the silver bullet. Please find out more at their official site, as well as the page that I created for them here, which will give you a good overview of everything that the organization offers–and discover how you can help.

The Trevor Blog is also an excellent resource for up-to-the-minute news and events, and you can follow them on Twitter @TrevorProject.

There’s not a moment to lose.

The Grotto Blog by Lauren E. Moccio is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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“Euna and I are two of the lucky ones whose story of captivity resulted in a happy ending. But there are so many journalists imprisoned around the world whose fate is still undecided. It is my sincere hope that the energy ignited around bringing us home will be harnessed into raising awareness around these fellow journalists and their struggle for freedom.” ~Laura Ling

UPDATE: Laura Ling and Euna Lee released a statement on September 1st, 2009 about their capture that was published both on CurrentTv’s website and as an op-ed in The Los Angeles Times: “When we set out, we had no intention of leaving China, but when our guide beckoned for us to follow him beyond the middle of the river, we did, eventually arriving at the riverbank on the North Korean side [...] We were firmly back inside China when the soldiers apprehended us. Producer Mitch Koss and our guide were both able to outrun the border guards. We were not. We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything that would keep us on Chinese soil, but we were no match for the determined soldiers. They violently dragged us back across the ice to North Korea and marched us to a nearby army base, where we were detained.”

I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to write in response to the return of Laura Ling and Euna Lee to their homes and families. All of us watching and waiting with bated breath, sending and re-sending Twitter messages, signing petitions, refreshing news feeds…we all waited for that moment when they descended from the plane, and Euna swept little Hana into her arms and Laura ran into the arms of her husband. I can’t tell you the relief and joy I felt, as I’m sure you all felt, watching that reunion of friends and family, and watching the restrained pride on the faces of President Clinton and Mr. Gore. It’s damn nice to see the good guys win.

I was less patient than I should have been. I was less patient with the media, the extraordinary American press of which Laura and Euna are both members, than I should have been. Weeks went by when Lisa Ling and her family attended candlelight vigils and we heard nothing, nothing from the press and nothing from Washington. There seemed to be a particular gag order that was afflicting CurrentTV, the San Francisco-based independent media company for which Laura and Euna work, and for which they were on assignment in China when they were taken. A lot of us got very angry very quickly, and with the blessing of hindsight that is 20/20, I realize now that I should have known that there was more going on behind the scenes, that sometimes international relations require calculation and calm, and that our waiting would pay off.

There’s an incredible irony in the fact that such great silence was necessary to prevent two of our press agents from being silenced permanently. It’s that necessity that made me hesitant to write this, and makes me wonder just how strategic we need to be in the days ahead…because “the girls,” as they were so lovingly (and strategically—it wasn’t lost on me that Lisa Ling and others who spoke on their behalf did their best to make them seem vulnerable and harmless) called during their time away from us, are home now, but the tenuous relationship with North Korea remains. America and her allies still have journalists doing work in South Korea and in China, and if we aren’t careful, there might be a next time—and we might not be so lucky next time.

The media’s reporting of their return remained cautious and strategic, even after the girls were in the air, even after they were home. Dan Abrams, Chief Legal Analyst for NBC News, tweeted his frustration with this: “The media reporting on the ‘pardon’ of Ling and Lee without more context implies there was a legitimate ‘conviction.’” I understood him, because it infuriated me as well, and for someone who has devoted one’s life to law and the integrity of the justice system, it must be devastating when things like this happen. That said, I wonder where our responsibilities really lie when it comes to freedom of the press v. control of the message in situations like this one, where complete truth-telling could be a serious bungle. There are situations where despite their reputation for being callous and hungry for any scoop, the media will withhold information upon request of the authorities, to avoid interfering with the investigation or to protect those involved, or even to protect our national security when it comes to details about military strategy and training methods. When it comes to dealing with a country like North Korea, a country that has a bitter hatred for the concept of a free press, and a country with which we have no diplomatic relations, how careful do we need to be? If in times of war or other turmoil, the law falls silent, should the press follow? Where do we draw the line between being wise, and being like them?

I don’t know the answers to these questions; I just know that I’m less judgmental of the media silence on this case, and other cases of imprisoned journalists, than I was a few short weeks ago, and I know that I worry about even publishing thoughts as seemingly harmless as these.

One thing of which I am sure is that there is great joy in this reunion, and great symbolism. The First Amendment and the people who protect it do not go down without a fight. Laura Ling and Euna Lee are soldiers for that cause; they are members of the United States press corps. I was heartened to see people displaying the yellow ribbon in their honor as they would for a POW, and I cried both for them and for this country when they were brought back to us. This was not a small thing we witnessed. This was a chance for the average American to take a moment and realize that it’s not just those in uniform who put their lives on the line for this country—they’re called the press corps for a reason. Sarah Palin and others would do well to reflect on this before they take another shot at “the media” in the general sense, because while there are rotten apples, I have no doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t be able to debate this subject at all were it not for the journalists who do their jobs well. It is their courage and nobility that allows me to write this blog, and allows you to read it. Journalists die every day. Journalists are captured every day. They risk this so that we can critique our government and hold them accountable, so that we can read books, and start blogs, and build libraries, and share information, and go to school, and learn new languages. They do it so we can make art, and sing songs, and love the ones we’re with. They do it so we can create beauty of the highest natural order.

I have such extraordinary gratitude for everyone who worked and wrote and fought and cried for Laura and Euna to come back. It was an honor and a privilege to be a part of the Twitter campaign, and I now have renewed confidence in new media and its daunting power.

And so the story continues. In far-off lands, and in America, where the streets are paved with gold.

The Grotto Blog by Lauren E. Moccio is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.lauriebethsgrotto.com.

“Press freedom is essential to our democracy, but the press also must not abuse this license. We must be careful with our power. We must avoid, when possible, publicity circuses that make the right of a fair trial a right difficult to uphold. We must avoid unwanted intrusions upon people’s privacy. Liberty and, no less, one’s reputation in the community are terribly precious things, and they must not be dealt with lightly or endangered by capricious claims of special privilege. Above all else, however, the press itself must unwaveringly guard the First Amendment guarantees of a free press. The free press, after all, is the central nervous system of a democratic society. No true democracy, as we understand the term, can exist without it.” ~Walter Cronkite

I am not a journalist.

As a blogger, it’s incredibly important for me to say that and to continue to believe it. My blog contains opinion pieces based on fact, not simply the facts. I have no cause to lump myself with those who are performing that truly crucial, almost sacred duty Mr. Cronkite describes above—many of whom suffer exile, captivity and death to preserve global press freedom, to keep the public informed, thus fighting oppression and totalitarianism in the most effective way. That’s not to say that there’s no place for editorializing in journalism—far from it, just that the distinction should be made clear.

Walter Cronkite was, of course, the epitome of unbiased and reliable journalism, the gold standard. He calmly related the details, but he did so with a tiny, endearing touch of awe, at once both an authority figure and a peer—you rarely knew quite how he felt about a story, but you knew he felt. He grieved for the premature death of a young president, and he practically bounced with glee when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. He boldly “put on [his] editor’s hat,” as he put it, because after the Tet Offensive his conscience told him that Vietnam was a bigger mistake than the public was being led to believe. Walter Cronkite wasn’t just an anchor, he was first and foremost a reporter, and he went into war zones and put himself on the line long after it was necessary for his career. He was the voice of reason and understanding for a weary, frightened nation when we needed him most, and remained so long after passing the torch to Dan Rather. I loved watching Dan Rather throughout my childhood and I have great respect for the man, but I know he isn’t Walter Cronkite. Somehow I always knew that, even though the first time I saw Mr. Cronkite was probably on “Sesame Street,” having been born much too late to watch him nightly. That said, there was something about that twinkle and that touch of awe I told you about before that set him apart and made him trustworthy, to the extent that even as a child I could sense it. There was something incredibly human about the way he spoke and the way he looked into the camera lens, the same something that lets eyes meet across a crowded room, the same something that wordlessly communicates that we are each fighting a great battle. The same something that makes you take a leap of faith, the same something that makes you have faith.

Mr. Cronkite had the same something that makes you go back to the original definition of a “romantic,” which had very little to do with what we today consider romantic love. It had to do with the way you lived your life and the concept of fighting for a cause—but it actually had quite little to do with why you were fighting; it had to do with how you fought. It essentially meant that you were willing to fall on a sword for your beliefs. Romantic poet Charles Baudelaire famously said, “Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling.” Great journalists take this way of feeling and apply it to exact truth. Like Edward R. Murrow before him, Mr. Cronkite set the paramount example of how it’s done. That’s what his legacy should be.

Walter Cronkite’s fight for exact truth extended to the welfare of other journalists, long after the retirement he so soon regretted. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, he preferred taking an active role in the organizations with which he associated himself, and knew he lacked the time to do so with their organization, but he took an honorary membership because he believed so strongly in their cause. However, “there was nothing honorary about Cronkite’s involvement with CPJ. Not only was Cronkite America’s best-known journalist, he had led a group during the Vietnam War that gathered information about reporters and photographers who were missing in action. His involvement with CPJ suggested to U.S. journalists the seriousness of the new organization, and his name at the top of the letterhead had the potential of getting the attention of government officials around the world. It did.”

Mr. Cronkite wrote letters on behalf of imprisoned journalists over the years and was a quintessential reason why three British journalists charged with espionage in Argentina in 1982 were released after 77 days of confinement. He wrote a letter to secure visas for CPJ representatives to visit apartheid South Africa and plead on the behalf of journalists there for their safety and the freedom to do their jobs. He hosted fundraisers and attended their annual events. He was tireless, passionate and fearless—a true, classic Romantic.

I was much more crushed by his death than would be expected of someone of my age, but more young people have affection and respect for him than most in the older generation realize. I’m the type of person who gasps when I get hurt; it’s my natural reaction to pain, which I first realized many years ago when deeply slicing my finger in an attempt to cut a bagel (how’s that for an East Coast injury?). I had no idea that Mr. Cronkite was ill, and when I turned on CNN and saw the headline, I gasped out loud even though no one else was in the room.

I never really believed in immortality, and I never thought immortality was a good idea. To be honest, Mr. Cronkite lived much longer than I would normally wish on anybody. That said, it’s a horrifying moment when the last person on Earth you thought might actually live forever closes his eyes for the last time.

Goodnight, Uncle Walt.

The Grotto Blog by Lauren E. Moccio is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.lauriebethsgrotto.com.

“People thought ‘Beavis & Butthead’ were the end of civilization. Now they seem tame compared to ‘Bret Michaels’s Rock of Love.’ I watched that show for two minutes and I got crabs.” ~Craig Ferguson

Sorry for the long wait, folks. Life intervenes.

In the short yet incredibly pervasive life of Twitter.com, opinions of the site and its relevance to our culture have been pretty enthusiastic on both sides, without much of a middle ground. Some have hailed it as having more cultural importance and more efficiency than broadcast journalism, and some react with abject horror at the very mention of the website that is destroying the Western world as we know it.

Now…everybody calm down for a second. Twitter may be powerful, as is most obviously illustrated by the incredible ability of whoever the hell is running that thing to constantly duck the Iranian authorities during the aftermath of their “election,” and allowing protesters and freelance journalists alike to exchange information with the outside world. That said, it probably is not going to surpass the outreach of broadcast news any time soon, and conversely, it is certainly not responsible for the downfall of humanity. Ironically, the blogosphere represents the pantheon of Twitter haters, people who cannot believe that any intelligent person would ever use this website, and how it represents the dumbing down of the West, and nobody cares what you ate for lunch, and general tearing and rending of garments.

Of course, this has happened before. It happens every twenty or thirty years or so. This time, however, we’ve broken the pattern. See, we as human beings tend to have essentially the same conversations and basic questions and exchanges of information as the generations that preceded us—from “will there ever be peace on Earth?” to “is there a God?” to “I love you,” to “my God is better than your God, therefore I hate you,” to “life is absurd and hilarious and beautiful, therefore I love you,”—you get the idea. It’s old news by now, or at least it should be. The thing that trips us up is that the lens through which we view and exchange this same information, and the speed at which we view and exchange this same information, keeps changing. The last major change—before the Internet as a whole, that is—was probably that big, scary, blinking picture box in the living room. The one that was going to kill the film industry and eliminate human emotion and traumatize the children and turn them into turnips.

Of course, none of this ever happened, and the Baby Boomers knew it wasn’t going to happen. This didn’t stop the Silvers, a.k.a. the Greatest Generation, from being terrified that television was the worst thing that ever happened to humanity, and when that turned out to be false, from transferring that same fear to the personal computer, along with some of the older Boomers. I knew someone in high school whose grandmother was convinced that their home computer had a secret button somewhere that would alert the Russians to come bomb the crap out of us because we were all on the dadgum ‘puter and wouldn’t be paying attention. No, I am not making that up. Of course, that never happened, either. Despite this fact, the fear remained for a lot of people—ironically again, many of these people love television. Television is a brilliant invention. There is an intimacy and a trust that is innately formed when people like Walter Cronkite and Peter Jennings and Anderson Cooper come into your home, and tell you, “Look, I know this is scary. I’m scared, too, and sad. But we’re strong people; we have been through worse, and you have journalists looking out for you and telling you what the deal is and holding people accountable, and this too shall pass.” Do I sound sappy? Sentimental? Deeply attached to my fellow man? Good. I am. And so is the rest of my generation. People may claim that we’re all running around glued to our Blackberrys and have lost all ability to make true connections with one another. There is a grain of truth to this, but anybody who was in New York during the aftermath of 9/11 knows it isn’t really true. Anybody watching the protests for same-sex marriage and the vigils trying to bring Laura Ling and Euna Lee home knows it isn’t really true. Anybody paying attention to the extraordinary emotion all around the world surrounding the inauguration of President Barack Obama knows that for Generation XYZ, it sure as hell isn’t true.

The reason I said that this pattern has been broken by Twitter is because of the ages of the people doing the complaining. If we were following the pattern we’ve been repeating since time immemorial, then we should expect the Baby Boomers to be having a heart attack about Twitter and how it’s the end of the world, and won’t someone think of the children. Bizarrely, it’s not them, at least not dominantly. Many Boomers, particularly stay-at-home mothers who run online businesses, have realized that Twitter is a much more effective way of building traffic to your sites and links than Facebook or any other social media website could ever hope to be. That’s certainly been my experience. Surprisingly enough, it seems to be largely Generation XYZ-ers who are panicking about Twitter and how it’s ruining the web, and how they don’t want people “tracking their every move,” as if Twitter (likely powered by the Russians) crawls inside your brain and extracts your innermost secrets.

Going back to the pattern…the television industry is also loaded with crap, and false prophets. While television has presented us with wonderful entertainment and up-to-the-minute news, it has also provided us with a lot of shameless vulgarity and ugliness—after all, you can’t really put Flava Flav and Charlie Rose in the same category; can you (please say no)? However, so has the print media that came before it (Rupert Murdoch, are your ears ringing?). Those of us who live in the West have the freedom to pick and choose which television stations we watch, which newspapers we buy and which websites we visit just as we choose our places of worship, and it amazes me that people don’t realize that Twitter offers the exact same options.

Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar (who now tweets, by the way), two people who produce five hours of live television per week that basically consists of them giving us their opinions, have called people who do the exact same thing using Twitter “egotistical”—on national television. It’s enough to make you think you fell down the rabbit hole. In reality, you don’t have to follow your boring neighbor who tweets about his ham sandwiches any more than you have to watch “Denise Richards: It’s Complicated” (please don’t) nor read The New York Post (seriously, please don’t do that). And people aren’t “tracking your every move” through Twitter any more than the Russians are spying on you through your television set, because you alone decide what you post. If you don’t want me to know you’re having some sort of intimate moment with your inflatable friend, don’t tweet about it. The freedom is yours, folks. Yet for some reason, people refuse to realize this, and prefer to gripe. And one thing is definitely changing—they’re griping younger and younger.

Agree? Follow me on Twitter @TheGrottoTweets.

The Grotto Blog by Lauren E. Moccio is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.lauriebethsgrotto.com.