Side Lines

Reality TV

It's time to get something off my chest...

As a Catholic, I believe in the the Holy Trinity and an all-knowing God. But, I also think that He doesn't give a rat's behind about reality television.

Now, I live in a house that reality TV is as important as food, on most days. Each week I see someone on "Big Brother," "Survivor" or any other real-life program claim that God is in control of the game and will reward "nice" people for playing it.

Let's think, and be rational for just a moment. Flood, famine, genocide, war... just where does "Big Brother 8" fall into the mix. I'm arrogant enought to say, "It doesn't."

Christ probably doesn't care about who makes the next round of "American Idol" or "Last Comic Standing" or even who will win the next immunity challenge.

Fact is, these are "games" conceived and contrived by overweight men watching a focus group in Burbank, California. I would be shocked to find that any of them even attend church regularly much less let Him play a role in their decision making.

The nature of the shows is to play to our worse traits- greed and lying. I don't have a problem with that. You pay your nickel and you take your chances. If I were to be on "Survivor" or any other show of its kind- I would cheat, steal and lie my way to the top. That is the purpose of the game.

I pray that God would be busier protecting soldiers and innocents around the world to have a problem with me playing a life-sized version of Monopoly.

To borrow a phrase, "Of course that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."

Where are we?

Take a look to your left, now your right. Where are you?
Now, that is a simple answer.
But where are we? I don't mean where are we sitting, but where we are as a community, as a nation, as a civilization.
Not to say the "sky is falling," but we are kidding ourselves if we think we are in the "cat bird's" seat.
As a nation we are at the edge of demise. We are over-extending in every way imaginable. With a war that is, at the very least, a international relations nightmare, healthcare becoming a luxury not everyone can afford and aging bridges and highways without any fiscal means to repair- we've lost our safety net.
We pride ourselves in being the greatest nation in the world, and while I would say we are still better off than 99% of the world's citizens, we are failing ourselves.
We can't compare ourselves to the Japanese or Dutch or whomever and say "Well, we are ahead of them."
We need to look at ourselves, individually, as a community and a nation, and say "how can we be better?"
As I sit hear and watch the news accounts coming from Minnesota around the collapsed bridge I am overwhelmed at what I see.
We have to make choices- do we need safer roads, a new bomber or healthy kids?
I afraid that there simply isn't enough in the piggy bank for all.
Please make your voice heard and keep those in office at the local, state a federal level that should be there and kick out those who don't.
Just my little rant to remind myself why it is so important to vote.

Car shopping

I’m not exactly in the market for a new car, sort of… in the market for being in the market.

I’m pretty sure I know what I want, or at least the pieces that go into the puzzle. However, I have an open question to those in the automotive sale industry.

“Why do you open the hoods of the vehicles on the front line of your lot?”

This perplexes me. Has anybody ever driven by and said, “I go and buy that sporty little red number, if only I knew it had an engine”?

I will freely admit that I know nothing about cars. But, even if I did, I still would not be able to tell anything about the mechanical soundness of an engine from 45MPH and 50 yards away.

If anyone can shed a little light onto my little predicament I would be happy to know.

Change of plans

Like much of the Lowcountry… this week brought a change of plans. I had chosen a rather trivial topic for this blog, but the events of Monday night changed everything.
My wife was eating supper with some co-workers just as the Sofa Super Store fire began. She called me as she was leaving and said, "What's going on? All hell is breaking loose."
Between an inconsolable 10-month-old and a four-year-old playing I had no idea. I proceeded to find out. Then I learned several firefighters had strong local ties.
As a photojournalist turned Internet director I covered the body of Louis Mulkey being brought to Dyal Funeral Home. His family and friends had gathered their. Using a camera at "ultimate grief" events is the toughest thing a photographer has to do.
There is a tight-rope to walk between honoring a family's privacy and trying to capture that emotion for readers to share.
Some folks glare and, on occasion, some folks yell. I know I putting a camera in front of someone on one of the worst days of their lives- I never forget that.
I wish I had a sign that says "I'm not here to embarrass, but to honor."
Showing the connection a lost loved one shared with family and friends is the highest way I know to show readers what a loss has been suffered.
I've done it more times than I can count. It never gets any easier. I never feel comfortable, even if nobody is looking, it feels if every eye is on me.
It's not like I can hide, I'm a 250-pound man standing in front of a crying mother with a camera.
I always treat it as my farewell to whoever has passed.
There have been times that after the fact family has called me an thanked me for the way I handled it and asked for additional copies of the paper. Those occasions are what makes the infrequent attacks worth while.
As with most of us, those firefighters will be in my memory until I die.
I years to come when we sit around and exchange stories, I'll recall where I was and what I did as a result.

"A reptile dysfunction…" part 2

I almost couldn't have asked for a better turn on events.

The team pulling an ancient turtle out of the Sawmill Branch had to halt it's efforts.

Why, you may ask… well, do to the rain. That's right, it was too wet to safely remove the fossil from its current resting place. Now it really is a reptile dysfunction.

"A reptile dysfunction…"

Like everyone, every once in a while we, at the Journal Scene, forget about our responsibility to not inject our personal opion into the news we cover. Some would argue we forget it all the time, of course.

But the afternoon of Thursday, June 14 I was the guilty party. Ryan Castle grabbed his camera and ran to the Sawmill Branch Canal and came back with this quick tidbit for our website (http://www.journalscene.com).

"South Carolina Museum officials excavated a fossilized leatherback turtle in the Sawmill Branch Canal they believe is approximately 30 million years old.
It was found in the Sawmill Branch Canal near the Brandymill pool complex.
Summerville resident Paul Bailey found the fossilized reptile three weeks ago while he was in the canal seeking fossils. Bailey says he is in the canal about once a month looking for fossils.
“To find the whole thing like this is really rare,” Bailey said.
Unable to excavate it himself, Bailey got in touch with the museum for help.
Eight men spent the day digging, trying to excavate the turtle.
Jim Knight, the museum’s director of collections, says they’ve estimated the 30 million year-old age of the fossil because it was found in the Ashley formation, a former deep-water environment, that has been dated to 28 to 30 million years ago.
Knight said this particular leatherback turtle is unique because it’s in one piece—something that rarely occurs."

Ryan, editor Julie Smith and I debated a headline for the story. Everything was rather generic and bland.

That is until I said "A reptile dysfunction," playing on the similarities in sound to those who use that little blue pill for an amorous "pick-me-up." While we all found it amusing, I was insistent it should really be the headline.

We finally called our new publisher, Ellen Priest, into the discussion. She decided discretion is the better part of valor, and rather than field calls from offended readers we should go with a different headline.

I slipped away with my tail between my legs and placed it on our website.

Growth

There is nothing that currently perplexes me more in our town than the issue of growth.
Change in inevitable, and growth will happen. But, where down that leave us.
Militant factions have formed on both sides: the growth/anti-growth fight gets a little more gas thown on to the flame each week.

I honestly come down on the side of growth. At least I think I do. The caveat I have to offer is that we as a community just don't have the infrastructure to grow. Have you driven from the square to Sangaree recently.

If our biggest artery can't handle our traffic, do we stand a chance by adding more commuters and SUVs to the mix?

My advice to both sides is, "chill." No matter what we do- growth is coming. That only way to make it worse is to fight it and enact ill-conceived statutes. As taxpayers we stand to be on the hook for a big bill. It will get bigger if we don't allow new development.