A Few Features and a Good Blog

Hello Folks:

Here are a few good feature stories to peruse as we think about writing our own. I was exposed to these way back at the beginning of the semester when I attended the "When Veterans Come Home" conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Although they are both quite lengthy, they are great examples of finding human faces to place with larger issues.

The first was written by a guy named Dave Philipps who spoke at the conference and writes for the Colorado Springs Gazette. The article speaks for itself. A must read.

http://www.gazette.com/articles/iframe-59065-eastridge-audio.html

Without giving it away, the article started with a few incidents near an army base, and as Philipps got farther and farther into it, he found this whole huge trend of things happening to soldiers returning from war zones. You never know what you are going to find when you look into something. I imagine that there are weird factors lurking behind almost everything these days.

The next is by a Denver Post journalist named Miles Moffeit. As he explained it, the story also started as something small and snowballed into the story of widespread rape of women GI's in the military, and the subsequent covering up of those rapes by people at the top.

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_0001913069

Both of these articles exposed major problems with how the military deals with traumatized and violent veterans returning home after war and affected Army policies.

A good blog about living with PTSD is by Michael Jernigan, a severely wounded Marine who spoke at the conference. The blog is very entertaining. The articles are listed in reverse chronological order, so start from the bottom of the NYT page if you are interested.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/michael-jernigan/

Maybe a little off topic, but good stuff.

ACC Conference

Upon arriving at the American College Of Cardiologists conference at 8 am on Monday, I felt that I had entered an alternate world. I was like being at the boat show my dad use to always get so excited about, but instead of boats, tobacco ads and people in faded jeans, there were well dressed doctors and all sorts of devices that shocked you. I navigated my way through flocks of doctors in the enormous building to the late-breaking clinical trials session. I inconspicuously sat down and began to try to make heads and tails of what was being discussed. Thanks to Dr. Murrow and a little bit of preparation, I was able to follow the presentations, which, I thought to my surprise, were pretty interesting. I was able to pick out which issues I thought were most relevant to North GA, and eager to make it down to the press conference.

The novelty of the press conference was exciting. I had never been to one before, and I liked the energy and buzz. I caught glimpses of my possible future - somewhat frightening. All in all, it seemed like a pretty good gig for those asking pointed questions and hacking away at laptops.

Hanging around reporters is always interesting. If you talk to several in a day, you pick up on the differences in their technique and style of reporting. As with the "When Veterans Come Home" conference that I attended at the beginning of the semester, I found the reporters to be open and encouraging in talking with us novices. Of course I became a little anxious when one told me that she had just worked a 20 hour day, but I guess that's just what you have to do.

I was very impressed by the grandiosity of the conference, especially the product expo. These people are, after all, responsible for our central life-serving mechanism. I was very entertained by people connected to various wires writhing and convulsing on a table and being watched by curious onlooking cardiologists. I hoped I would never have to be hooked up to one of those.

Although I was a little overwhelmed, I found the conference to be a very conducive atmosphere for an aspiring journalist. The docs were eager to talk about their research and expected to be interviewed. In the commotion of the press conference, I found it easy to forget my gumshoe inhibitions and walk up to someone, stick a recorder in their face and start asking questions. That's what everyone else was doing.

I was most interested in the quality of care talks and posters. That seems to be most applicable to my county and audience. If you are not well educated about heart disease and prevention, all of the stents and statins are unlikely to help you very much.

Even after one day, I began to feel a little credibility. Like Woody Allen said, "80% of life is just showing up." Well, I guess there is this article I have to turn in too.