Fall 2005 PDF - Milton Academy

eaders about social issues under debate.By and large, the surveys work and JournalWeb editors have told Cynthia that theyare always surprised by the thoughtfulnessof the comments they receive. “Hearingfrom the extremes of our readers has beenfascinating. When people are charged upby a story, they love to post their feelingsand thoughts. Surveys may be a way toconnect readers.”For Cynthia, Milton was “a great steppingstonefor this kind of work because you’retrained to seek the full answer. Thereeverything is challenged; the overall environmentmakes you question everything.”John Charles Smith, she says, gave her alove of English and taught her how to askquestions that push the envelope. DebbieSimon was another significant influence.“Being thrown into an environment likethe speech tournaments, even though Iwasn’t a current events competitor, makesyou hyper-aware of current events and theworld at a time when most teenagers arenot ready to touch on those serious questions.When you leave, you realize how farMilton pushed you.” Cynthia learned totake nothing on faith but to believe thatthe fact, if found and respected, wouldreveal the true story.Rod Skinner ’72Director of College CounselingAbout his beat: David Colbert ’95 in Gardner, MassachusettsDavid reported for metropolitan Bostonweeklies, and edited a weekly paper,before reporting for the Gardner News, asmall daily serving Gardner, Massachusetts,and surrounding towns. Along theway he earned the 2003 New EnglandPress Association Award for SpecialFeatures.“I share Gardner coverage with oneother reporter,” David says. “My beatconsists primarily of crime and politics,but lucky for Gardner there isn’t enoughof either to occupy all my time, and Ihave to dig for other stories.“The frustration is that a beat reporter ata small paper doesn’t have time to domuch investigative journalism, or to reallywork a topic over. I do like how wellyou get to know the community in whichyou work. You find out its history, thenice neighborhood and the one on theother side of the tracks, what people dofor a living, which ethnic groups livewhere, everything that former politiciansmessed up. Every community, no matterhow simple on the surface, has fascinatingstories. Unfortunately, at a smalldaily, you don’t always get the chance totell them.“Gardner used to be the chair manufacturingcapital of the world, but is nowone of the poorest communities in thestate. Most of its factories have been torndown or stand empty. City officials aretrying to get the owners to tear themdown because they fear a major fire, andneighbors complain that teenagers andhomeless people break into them. Still,it’s a relatively safe and tight-knit community;many people are working toimprove it, and people are moving in tonew expensive houses. Tracking thecity’s changes would be nice—what pressuresto go in different directions. Itwould be great to find out why so manypeople in their teens and twenties areusing crack and heroin. Unfortunately,I’m usually limited to reporting on themayor’s initiatives or the latest drugbust.“Still, I always feel that I’m providing animportant service, that in an open societythere is news that someone has to report(accurately, free of the spin that somebodyalways wants you to add), no matterhow unglamorous. Beating the competitionto a big story (two other dailies coverthe city) is a thrill, but for me the bestpart is just talking to people. The mayor(a guy who kept a grinch doll namedafter the school superintendent hangingon a noose in his office) tells me hiswheeling and dealing. A city councilortells me about the French-speaking testyou used to have to take to join theAcadien Club. The deputy police chiefcomplains about the time he caught twokids, literally red-handed, after spraypaintingtheir names in a playground,only to have a judge nicknamed ‘Let ’emSlide’ dismiss the charges becausenobody witnessed the vandalism. An elderlywoman stops me in the courthouseto tell me about how some kids whoknocked over gravestones should be sentencedto cleaning floors with a toothbrush.“If I had to pick one story of which I ammost proud, it would be a feature I wroteon two Muslim families. I spent a daywith them talking about their customs,the differences between their homecountries and the United States, what itwas like to wear a veil after September11. One of the men told me he liked thearticle so much he sent it to his father inEgypt. That was flattering for me, personally,but also a chance to show theworld what a free press can do.”David Colbert ’9511 Milton Magazine