Reznet

KYLE, S.D.--That last day of work before Christmas is always so long. Plans have generally been made for family gatherings. Many of those plans involve travel of some distance. Many people leave for their destinations as soon as that last hour goes by on the time clock.

Mitt Romney talked about spirituality on "Meet the Press" Sunday, and rarely has the topic been so addressed by a candidate for the presidency.

"The great experiment of democracy, the experiment of America's freedom, has, as its basis, a sense of morality and a recognition that religious foundations are part of that morality," the former Massachusetts governor told Tim Russert.

The Republican presidential candidate's comments elicit a few observations and some very real questions.

The last few days of the AIJI Institute were ones in which I could hardly concentrate.  I had not been able to reach my daughter the entire week.  Finally I called her father, a task which is a daunting to me as crossing Antarctic in winter time.  She had been hospitalized on Monday and no one had bothered to call me.  She, of course, could not.  After finding out on Wednesday were she was, I was told as well, that she would get out that day.  Thursday, a call to check, she was not out yet but expected to be that day.  Would graduation ever get here.  Finally the ceremony over, I

We edited and edited again. Finally the paper went to press. Now we watch as it is printed onto paper. We would all like to believe that this issue will make history, or at least AIJI history.

George Benge, our last speaker, will impart wisdom tonight, as every other speaker that we have had has done.

We will say good-bye to dorm living tomorrow and disperse this class, probably only to come together again thu emails and reading each others work.

I met the most wonderful lady yesterday.  I use the term lady in the finest sense of the word.  She is congenial, giving, and knowledgeable.  Her subject?   Trier, Germany.  Can't say that I ever remember studying it but somewhere I must have since it is a major city in Germany.  Dorothy Neuhaus makes you want to visit a place that you have never been before, when she talks about this city. 

Her knowledge of the city comes from years of visiting it, to reconnect with her husbands family.  Her own roots are from Sweeden, but for Trier, she has a passion.  

Anyone seen my blog around.  I just wrote one taking a half hour.  I hit post and now my words are out in cyber space vying for a home with all those other lost words out there. 

Hummph!  Still learning.  Write the blog in Word and transfer. 

As stories have been written over the past two weeks, they are edited by instructors, returned to reporters to be reworked and then submitted a second time.

Students in the editing field will now edit the submissions, yet again, and again return them to reporters for rewrites. At last then they will be considered for printing in the publication that this year's cohort of students will produce.

AIJI continued to present a host of experiences to this year's students. 

Students continue to monitor news stories that have been covered by them.  The Hyperion story, of course, was huge.  Students compared what they knew and had reported with articles from other news media. 

All were concerned with the student from this campus who had meningitis and who has subsequently died.  This was the second medical story of interest since we arrived on campus.  The first being that of University President Abbott gift of a kidney.   

An aspiring reporter's first encounter with a breaking story in the newsroom is a truly defining moment. If the feeling of excitement and apprehension do not grab you with the fiercest of grasps, then it is a place you do not belong.

As stories were being completed Wednesday by AIJI students, an instructor, checking the net, found a recently posted notice of a press conference to be held near Elk Point, S.D. The event was to release information about the "Gorilla project," a project that has been speculated about for some time.

"House of Good Hope, A Promise for a Broken City," is a story about going back to that which produced you. Rarely have I seen such understanding about why people return to the places that they grew up, even when those places have little left to offer. On Monday Michael Downs treated AIJI students to readings from his book, which has just been published.

Often the reality that Native Americans return to reservations, which seeminly offer little, is spoken of and questioned. A read of this book will give an idea as to why this circumstance persists.