While combing through a dated Sunday edition of "The New York Times," I came across a program listing for the PBS documentary series "Independent Lens."
During the week of Dec. 11, they aired a doc called "The Paper" (not to be confused with a film from the mid-90s which starred Michael Keaton).
It is about the experiences of college journalists at "The Daily Collegian," the student paper of Penn State University.
Ever since my days as a reporter at "The Tartan," the student newspaper of Radford University, I have tried to keep up with local college newspapers whenever I'm in a college town.
My last visit to a place where college students outnumber residents (well, the Census stats are not right in front of me), was when I stopped in Chapel Hill, NC, on Nov. 2 to see an Athol Fugard play at The Deep Dish Theatre there.
I had heard that the University of North Carolina student paper "The Daily Tarheel" had run an offensive political cartoon about Turkey during the time when the Armenian lobby looked like they were going to be succesful in pushing federal legislation that many of us in the Turkish-American community are still vehemently opposed to, in the fall.
But, the cartoonist did something which President George W. Bush would never do even if accidentally killed a million Ethiopian children_ he apologized!
With that in mind, I picked the Nov. 2 edition of "The Daily Tarheel," and I found a very interesting bit.
It was not from one of the student journalists, even though there were a number of interesting articles by them, including one by Abbey Caldwell about a hockey tournament for UNC's hockey coach Jim Sapikowski, who was murdered along with his wife in 2005 by their own teengae son who is now awaiting trial.
The piece that caught my eye was a letter-to-the-editor by Tim Wander, a senior in history. As many of you outside the state even know by, North Carolina has experienced a devastating drought which according the WUNC-FM, has cost state farmers millions and millions of dollars in losses.
In his letter, Wander said that each state resident needed to take serious measures to avoid wasting water. The City of Raleigh, which is near Chapel Hill, has taken some new measures as have several cities in the state.
Wander also talked about ways to cut water use. Though the letter was published a month and a half ago, little has changed as far as rainfall amounts in North Carolina.
Here is that letter (virtually) in its entirety:
"In light of the amount of rain we have received lately, one might be led to believe that we are on our way to recovering from this horrible drought.
But the recent showers amounted to little more than a sip for a very thristy earth. A letter to the editor last week urged us to meet our needs with bottled water, but I would suggest a re-evaluation of our 'needs.'
Taking military-style showers, washing our cars in the rain, collecting rainwater and only flushing in emergencies are just a few of the countless ways.
Yes, we need to drink water. But, we can even curb that most basic need by being conscious of ourselves in a broader context.
I have not showered in a week, but when I inhale I only sense the sweet aroma of conservation."
Now, I must profess that I need to take my showers significnatly more than once a week and I have a pet-peeve about unflushed toilets, particularly in the men's room.
But, maybe we can use this drastic situation to justify not washing our cars for a while_ unless that is if you live in an area with a lot of pigeons.
Useful Links:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/paper.index.html
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment