High School Heroes

There is virtually no higher honor for a high school student than meeting the President of the United States. Only a select few kids ever get the chance. And, usually, it's a high school hero of some distinction: National Spelling Bee Winner, High School Football Champions, Boy Scout Troops.

Yesterday afternoon, it was a group of Presidential Scholars. The President had invited them to the White House to congratulate them on their award, and to use the occasion to reauthorize the "No Child Left Behind" act.


Presidential Scholars are smart kids. According to a Washington Post story this morning, it's a high honor that very few kids get:

"Each year the program selects one male and one female student from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Americans living abroad, 15 at-large students, and up to 20 students in the arts on the basis of outstanding scholarship, service, leadership and creativity."

Not only do these kids get to meet the President, but they also attend lectures and seminars all over Washington, with government officials and elected representatives, during the month of June.

These are smart kids.
These are bright kids.
These are the kind of kids that serve as vessels for our collective hopes and dreams for the future.

When the President met with 50-some of these kids yesterday, they handed him a handwritten letter. Apparently, it was a letter stating some of their heartfelt concerns.

Now even though these are smart kids, they're still kids. So you had to wonder: what crucial issue would be on their minds and hearts, compelling them to speak to the President directly about it?

Were they requesting presidential pardon for Paris Hilton?
Suggesting Ludacris tunes for his iPod?
Offering him a Haiku about Sanjaya?

Nope. None of these. Instead, the handwritten note implored the President to uphold the Geneva Conventions.

The concern on these high school kid's hearts was torture; and told the President that they "believe we have a responsibility to voice our convictions."

Here's a part of their letter:

"We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants..."

I can promise you what you will hear in the media today. On right-wing-talk-radio, you will hear that these kids ambushed the President. They will call it disgraceful that these kids took an innocent and non-political event, and injected politics into it.

But, of course, they did nothing of the sort.

It was, in fact, the President's staff who was atttempted to use them as window dressing at the reauthorization of "No Child Left Behind." His staff put politics into it. They just chose to speak their mind too.

We'll probably also hear that not all of the President Scholars signed on to this letter.

I am sure this is the case. In any group of smart, free-thinking kids, there will be those who choose not to go with the group.

But neither of these is the thing I will remember from this story.

What I will remember is the courage it took for these high school kids --who were guests in the White House-- to speak out boldly about what they believe.

The power differential between a high school kid and the President of the United States is pretty vast. The possibility of retaliation by others, or the loss of career opportunities, is real. They had no power to wield, and everything to lose. Given this, the pressure to stand quietly, smile meekly, take pics for your MySpace page, and then just go home, must have been intense.

But they didn't do that. They did much more than that. They chose to speak their "truth" to the most powerful "power" in the world.

And whether you agree with them or disagree with them, you have to admit that it takes a lot of courage to do what they did.

And for this, I'd have to say that these are smart kids. They give me some hope about the future.

They are real high school heroes.

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Data Errata

I am proud to say that I made a mistake in this entry from a week ago.

Well, technically, it wasn't really a mistake. It was just information I didn't know yet. What I didn't know when I wrote you was that there was an anonymous donor at the Walnut Hill show. He/she (they're anonymous...) chose to double the total amount we raised that night for the Nothing But Nets campaign.

That means that we actually raised $3,668.00!!!

Wow!

That's the second Connections show to raise $4K because of the generosity of anonymous donors.

And, that means that, to date, Connections has raised more than $14,000.00 for various charitable causes.

I proud to be able to tell you this, and proud that I was "wrong" before.

Thanks again to all those who come to our shows. On behalf of the whole band, it's an honor to play for you.

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Digital Download Data

The other day I compiled some data on online digital downloads of my first CD. (I did this last year too...just updating...) This is data from companies that are actually selling my music online right now. I thought you might be interested to see which songs were most popular.

I was actually a bit surprised how it came out. I would have never guessed the top two were actually the top two. And "Mom Went Bungie Jumping" appears to be the leader by a mile. Take a look for yourself:

Mom Went Bungie Jumping: 169
Voices: 83
I Will Sing: 57
Sequoyah: 43
The Birches of Moscow: 39
My Brontosaurus Threw a Potluck: 35
Deep Blue Grey: 30
The Peace: 27
The Road Goes On: 26
Your Warm: 25
Sun is Gonna Show: 24
Song from the Spring: 19
These Rooms: 13

(numbers indicate the total times a song has been downloaded/streamed)

If you want to hear a clip, click here to go to playlist at iTunes with these songs in this same rank of popularity.

Of course, these numbers don't reflect "free" downloads or streams from other websites, such as this one, or from places like MySpace. The truth is, my most popular download of all-time is "Prairie Chapel Road," which has now been given away more than 3,000 times. And "The Natural Thing" has more than 1,000 streams on MySpace.

But I was curious to see what folks were buying, and so there you have it. Interesting...fascinating really...to see where folks are putting their money.

BTW, you might assume all this downloading has brought in serious cash for me, yes? You'd be wrong. Total amount I've been paid for all these digital downloads?

About $55 bucks.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating here....where you choose to buy your online music makes a huge difference to actual artists. And the major company that --far and away-- leads the other digital media companies, in terms of being "artist friendly?"

iTunes.



Yep. That's right.

Sure, I'm predisposed to like them. And yes, I'm totally biased in my view of their company. But facts is facts. iTunes is the most "artist friendly" major digital distributor. It's not even close. They pay artists more than ten times per song than some of the other major retailers.

In fact, of the sales listed above, Apple's iTunes accounts for a mere one-quarter of all the downloads, but a whopping three-quarters of the money paid out!

Which allows me to remind you, as the flight attendants say, "We know you have a choice when you buy online, so thank you for choosing iTunes."


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"Connecting" to Nothing But Nets (thanks, Walnut Hill!)

Connections played another show this past Sunday night. We were at Walnut Hill UMC, as a part of their summer Sunday night series. About 150 folks showed up and it turned out to be yet another great show.

The band's played enough together now that we had a certain...uh...connection with each other that night. It was a fun night.

Best of all, we raised a heck of a lot for another good cause. The good folks at Walnut Hill suggested a new beneficiary for this show, and we agreed. It's called the "Nothing But Nets" campaign. When all the cash is counted, we'll probably exceed $2,000 raised for this great cause

Nothing But Net is a campaign to eradicate malaria in African countries. The idea is that that a simple mosquito net with a mild insecticide can actually help prevent the spread of this killer disease.

The movement was inspired by a short essay that ran in Sports Illustrated some time back. Folks associated with the NBA heard about it, and thus the name. As I understand it, many NBA stars have adopted this as a non-profit that they support. It's grown to where it's officially a United Nations program, and the United Methodist Church is now a sponsor.

Studies show that someone in infected with malaria every 30 seconds. These nets can last a family up to four years, as I understand it, and they reduce the likelihood of transmission 90 percent!

The NBN website reminds us all that the conflict in Darfur continues unabated. There are many refugees from the conflict how living in Chad, and the "rainy season" is coming soon. Estimates are that 25 percent more refugees could die this year from malaria than last.

One net can be furnished to a family for a simple $10 contribution.

So, it looks like we may have helped save more than 200 people's lives on Sunday night.

That puts it in some pretty sharp relief, no?

So, many thanks to the good folks at Walnut Hill. You all were very kind in your compliments of the band afterwards. We did a mix of Chicago, Eagles, and Fogelberg,. All in all, a good time was had by all.

Oh yeah...you know, you could send a net too. Just click here to do it right now.

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Just So We're Clear...

There is a guy who, in the coming weeks, will break one of baseball's most hallowed records. I wrote about him before in a blog entry you can still find here.

The closer we get to the date he will break that record, the less I am paying attention. I am turning off media reports that mention his name. (Note how I haven't mentioned it here...) Truthfully, I'm really not paying attention to baseball news at all right now, and part of it is precisely because I don't want to hear one word about this guy.

I don't want to know how close he is to the record right now (I am pleased to say that at this moment, I really do not know...) and I hope to not hear about it on the day he "breaks" it.

As I wrote before, he doesn't deserve the honor, the attention, or the accolades. I felt that when I wrote before, and nothing has changed about my feelings since.

As I understand, he stands a good chance of being booed on that day he "breaks" the record. Were I in the crowd that day --and I would hope as many people as possible will just stay home-- I'd try to boo louder than anyone.

So undeserving is he of this honor, such a great travesty of baseball history his "record" will be, that I hope to never mention his name again.

Therefore, when I fail to say a word about it down the road, please do not misinterpret my silence as forgetfulness or even tacit approval. I am not accidentally ignorant to this story, I am intentionally so.

Just so we're clear.

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Style vs. Substance

For years, we Americans have enjoyed a love-hate relationship with our television news anchors. We trust them to frame the issues of the day and present us with a snapshot of the world as it is. (Or, at least, the world as they see it...)

We turn to them again and again in moments of crisis, for information, comfort, and a communal connection with others. In fact, in times of crisis you could argue that TV news anchors draw millions of us together in a way that no other media source --no one else anywhere, really-- can.

But the unspoken underbelly of TV news anchors is that they not only have to be sharp and professional journalists, but they also have to be easy on the eye. I am not saying I believe this to be fair. I am saying that if you asked 100 journalists about it, the vast majority would give you Walter Cronkite's answer: It's just "the way it is."

The movie "Broadcast News" famously brought this truth to the big screen. It pitted the characters of William Hurt and Albert Brooks against each other. In the film, Hurt plays a "pretty boy" who knows virtually nothing of journalism, but somehow manages to ascend to "the chair," as the lead anchor of a network news show. Brooks plays an intelligent, well trained, but far-too-self-aware, journeyman reporter who knows the world, knows his profession, and knows that none that matters in a world where style so often trumps substance.

At the end of the movie, Brooks walks away from the insanely-manic pace of the network newsroom, content to live out his days as a local reporter for a Seattle affiliate. Hurt, the pretty boy, becomes a broadcast news institution.

Of course, there is an even deeper, and crasser, level to this "style vs substance" dynamic. The deeper level is the unfair double standard concerning women and men on TV news.

Yes, men are mostly expected to be "pretty boys." But some of them aren't. Cronkite was a lovable grandfather. Koppel looked vaguely like Alfred E. Newman. Guys can get away that, so long as we believe them to be consummate journalistic professionals.

Women cannot. They are not only expected to be consummate professionals, but they are also expected to be...well..."Babes."

Even with his grandfatherly countenance, Cronkite might still be able to chair the CBS News today. He knows the world, he knows the news. It doesn't matter how he looks. Katie Couric not only has to know the world and know the news, but she has to look "pretty" doing it too.

Again, I'm not saying this is fair or right. In fact, it's more than a little sick, and really quite sexist.

But leave it to FOX to push this envelope as far as it will go. FOX --the network that gave a whole new meaning to "style over substance"-- is in the process of editing a new reality show called "Anchorwoman."

The premise of the show places a woman, whose only credentials appear to be that she is a "babe," in the anchor chair of a Tyler Texas newsroom. The woman, Lauren Jones, is a former swimsuit model and pro-wrestling...ahem..."personality." She has ZERO training as a journalist. She has ZERO experience as a journalist.

But for reasons still unclear to me, a Tyler TV station allowed FOX to insert her into their staff, and even gave her the "chair" as coanchor of their local evening news. Then, they allowed FOX to follow her --and the rest of their staff- around with cameras, to see just what kind of wacky, oddball, hilarity might ensue.

Here is a Good Morning America clip that talks about Ms. Jones, the Tyler station, and the ethical issues involved:



Let me say --and I hope you all noted-- that the brief GMA clip of the "average" Tyler "woman on the street" indicates that she's really embarrassed by this whole episode. Many of us here in Texas are. This is FOX thing, not a Texas thing. Please keep that in mind. (Please?)

And the thing that gets me about all this is not that FOX came up with this idea. I expect that from them. They're FOX. What really gets me is the choice of this TV station to play along.

Why in the heck did the editors at this station (A CBS affiliate, btw...) allow this?! Do they really see their newsroom as nothing more than a playground for some crass cultural experiment? Isn't it still a real newsroom? Aren't there some standards of journalistic professionalism that need to be embraced and held sacred?

Or, have we really come to a place where style does trump substance, and such things just don't matter anymore?

After all, since all the customer sees is the image of a body in a chair, maybe looking good really is all that matters. Maybe any old good-looking body can do it.

Since most of the TV news appears to be about Paris Hilton, maybe it's just the natural evolution of things to have the news read by Paris Hilton.

Hey....speaking Paris Hilton...

No...really....

You see, into this sorry state of affairs comes a real TV anchorwoman who gives me the hope that substance isn't quite dead yet.

Mika Brzezinski --daughter of former Carter cabinet member, Zbigniew-- is a respectable journalist with MSNBC. Several weeks ago now, she did something on MSNBC's new morning show, "Morning Joe," that caused quite a stir in the journalistic world.

Brzezinski's task was to provide short, top-of-the-hour, news breaks on the show hosted by Joe Scarborough. But on this day, she decided she would not "lead" with a yet another story about Paris Hilton.

Apparently, she actually believed there were others stories more deserving of the lead position that morning. You know, like maybe the war? Maybe...I don't know...the Attorney General scandal? Maybe the key Republican Senator who, that very morning, had announced his break with the President on the issue of the war, and his newly found support for bringing the troops home now?

Gee, maybe, she thought, one of those is the real lead story of the day.

But no. Her editors gave her yet another in the endless cycle of trivial and vacuous Paris Hilton stories. That was to be her lead.

But on this particular morning, something in Mika Brzezinski snapped. For three successive "news breaks" that morning, she refused to follow the instructions of her bosses. She wouldn't do the story on Paris Hilton. She and the other on-air personalities treat it with a sense of humor. They joke about it. But you can also sense a very real frustration simmering in her, just below the surface.

Take a look:



People seem to be captured by, and enamored with, this small "protest" by Brzezinski. In fact, 2.8 million people have watched the above clip on YouTube. That is HUGE.

And, she has become something of a celebrity among her fellow journalists, and folks like me, who are cheered by her actions. In an AP story after-the-fact, Brzezinski says this:

"I could not get through the first three words without crumbling. My skin was crawling. This was our lead? On a day like this?"

And as for the positive reaction to her little on-air-protest, she offers up this thought:

"Among journalists it touched a nerve because I think we’re tired of pretending this is important. We also know that, deep down inside, our viewers know that we don’t believe this is news. They can’t. They can’t think we’re that dumb."

Indeed!

Happily, her MSNBC bosses have actually seen fit to give her the "chair" on a new hour-long morning news show. And I will point out that, in the past few weeks, the rest of the media seems to finally have gotten the hint that nobody's all that concerned about Paris Hilton.

Thank God.
-----------------------------------

On his show, Keith Olbermann used to introduce Paris-Hilton-like stories with the tag line "another story my producers are making me cover." He would say it in jest. But you also always hoped he really believed it too.

Mika Brzezinski reminded us that he's not alone. She reminded us that perhaps it does matter who sits in "the chair." A bimbo is probably never going to "get" that a story about a bimbo is not a lead story. A swimsuit model is probably never going to grasp that it's really not even news at all. And a wrestling "personality" is probably never going to have the guts to stand up to her editors on live national television.

Hopefully, now and then, a journalist will.

And hopefully, now and then, we'll continue to be reminded that, in the end, substance still does matter.

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Sequoyah Unplugged: A Songwriter Retreat, August 17-19

This announcement is mainly for my songwriting/ performing friends on this list. Feel free to pass this along to anyone who might be interested....

I'm honored to be a part of what we hope will become an annual event at the Mount Sequoyah Retreat Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The event is called "Sequoyah Unplugged: A Singer-Songwriter Retreat." It's scheduled for August 17-18.

Trout Fishing in America will be the feature performers, and also teach a workshop, as will Efron White and Emily Kaitz. My old friend, Charles Gaby, will also be a workshop leader.

The entire weekend is intended to be a time of retreat and renewal for songwriters and performers, and to explore the idea of songwriting as spiritual practice. Although it's being held at a United Methodist center, and several Methodist will have leadership, it will not be sectarian in nature, and the hope is that any songwriter interested in the cross-section of spirit and writing will want to attend.

You may recall me blogging about this place before. Sequoyah is a beautiful and relaxing retreat center, just on the edge of the city, atop the "mountain" of the same name.

I will be leading/organizing a nightly "song circle" time for anyone who wants to share their gift, and I'll serve as a host for the weekend.

If you want more info, you can download a brochure from this link.

I hope some of you might consider going.

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