I have often thought about the people whose names appear regularly in our Valley papers and how I too often take their contributions as just matter of fact and miss the nuances. In last week’s edition, there appeared two photographs of rodeo competitors taken by Ivan Garcia and the more I looked at them the more I realized how well he captured the action of competitors and animals, even catching the facial expressions; the look on the young Mutton Buster’s face is priceless. I also have seen some videos of Mr. Garcia’s work and he is obviously a trained professional and we readers are lucky to have his additions.
Another name, this one with a weekly byline as a freelance reporter, is Michael Ramirez; who surely is one of the most prolific writers whose stories cover numerous sports up and down the Valley. If you compiled all the words coming out of his keyboard over the years, they would equal a novel the size of War and Peace.
Let me add a critique here, nothing to do with Michael, about sports photos. Often, as in last week’s issue, three photos and one story, were submitted by “contributed,” which means a school official or parent or whomever took the photo. That is all fine and well but it doesn’t go far enough in that most often the names of the athletes are not listed, and I can attest that in my years involved with newspapers, I have come to know young people love to see their names in the newspaper. The photo introducing a newly formed KCHS girls’ beach volleyball team lacked the ladies’ names and should not when it only takes a few minutes to take out a pad and pen and note each player’s name and placement. I suppose, given advancements in technology, that also can be done on the same device that took the photo. And this applies to most photos of events, where it is feasible to put names to faces, with large audience/participants excepted.
Now we come to we three columnists. I do not know what position Mr. Worthy takes, but I am aware that I am a local boy who happens to write a weekly column, whereas Ms. Jensen is a professional, published author of I don’t know how many books. Big difference.
George and I are opposites in many ways: he has a long and strong marriage and closeness to his children; I divorced after five years and have struggled for decades in maintaining relationships with my kids and grandkids. He is a veteran who was in harm’s way in Vietnam, while I was 4-F and opposed to that war while sitting safe in college. That would seem to separate us, but I can still read George and appreciate his words; not long ago his recitation of an incident with his dog drew me into his emotions, and that is good writing. The fact that both George and I often exhibit our opposing political ideologies (in case you haven’t noticed, he is a Republican conservative and I am an Independent liberal) is good for any newspaper that seeks to achieve journalistic balance.
When reading of Ms. Jensen’s many travels here and abroad, I get a strong feeling of farnweh* and the ability to generate such feelings is just plain good writing. (*Farnweh, German, noun, pronounced fern-vay, definition: The longing to be somewhere else, somewhere other than here; the opposite of homesickness — farsickness.) Her recent telling of a trip to Manhattan with a friend conjured up my first visit there and how as first-time tourists to New York, we both hit some of the same sights, which is not uncommon for most visitors but her words somehow made memories of my seeing those well-known sights seem more significant; don’t ask me how.
Upon occasion we read the words of our managing editor, Ryan Cronk. I don’t know his background, but Ryan writes mostly about local events keeping to the facts without personal comment, the difference between reportorial and editorial writing, and he does it like someone who was trained in journalistic standards. This means no “fake news” appears in the Valley papers, and that surely means something to readers given the current state of journalistic affairs.
Of these people, I have never met Ivan or Michael and I’m sure Lucy and I could pass on the sidewalk without recognition. George I would know on sight though he, like myself, is 50 years beyond our meeting a few times through a mutual friend named Gordon, who was also a Vietnam veteran and purchased from George’s business. I know others on staff like Julie (who even though we have opposing views on a few things, she is just a cool person to know) and have spoken once to Jon who, like me, has a Greenfield connection.
Now here is an embarrassing admission: even though we communicate on a weekly basis, I do not recall ever having met Ryan. If we have, it has been long enough ago I don’t remember the occasion, and if asked today to pick Ryan out in a crowd, I couldn’t do it. Really. In fact, given how technology allows for remote participation, it is entirely possible Ryan is seldom or ever in the Rustler office here in KC because I really don’t know how the paper is put together these days. I knew 35 years ago, but things have changed. Maybe some day the opportunity will arise and Ryan and I will cross paths, but until then we are just two guys whose names appear in the local newspapers.
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Today the Interim Director of Educational Affairs for the College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma celebrates a milestone. Happy Birthday to my daughter Jenny Suzanne Wilson.
Take care. Peace.
