Otterblog

Does it matter if our elected representatives live in the districts they represent? On the surface, that seems like a no-brainer. Of course it does. If you live in a community, you’re more likely to know its problems and potential and the people who make it so.

We have two residency issues involving politicians going these days. The first, involves former state Rep. Frank Mitchell, who is challenging Rep. Julia Howard in the Republican primary in the 79th House District, which is made up of Davie County and parts of northern and central Iredell County. Howard claims Mitchell’s true address is in another section of Iredell. She hired a private eye to find out. The whole thing seems sad and funny at the same time.

Then, there’s Vernon Robinson, who is running for the 13th Congressional District, another of our ink-splattered districts. It stretches from Eastern Wake County into Guilford County and across the northern tier counties. Robinson doesn’t live in the district.

Federal candidates don’t need to live in the districts they represent as long as they live in the state. Robinson’s residency problem is strictly a political one. Mitchell’s residency is right now a legal problem, but it is ultimately a political problem as well. Even if he prevails and meets the legal threshold for residency, Howard is likely to pound him in the primary about where he hangs his hat.

Repeat after me:

Homer. Marge. Bart. Lisa. Maggie.
Religion. Speech. Press. Assembly. Petition.

We carried a funny little story today that said Americans are more likely to be able to name members of the Simpson cartoon family than the freedoms spelled out in the First Amendment.

Is that really surprising? Quick. Name the four Beatles. Now name the four presidents on Mount Rushmore (answers at the end.)

It’s easy to view this as yet another sign of American boorishness, but I think the lesson is a bit more subtle. Knowledge is power, but it’s also currency, and we know what we think is worth knowing and has value to others. For better or for worse, apparently most people think a working knowledge of an animated sitcom is more valuable than a working knowledge of the Bill of Rights.

But the truth is that it doesn’t have to be either/or. We have big brains, and ideally we should know about the Constitution and the Simpsons, the Beatles and Mount Rushmore, Hip Hop and Hiroshima. The counter argument is that one group represents enduring American values and history and the other is just music and culture, fads and fashion. Yes and no. At some point, culture that matters changes history.

Answers: From left to right, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln

Most small towns in rural Iowa are all pretty much the same. Town square, fading business district etc. So I remember how bizarre it was when I drove through Fairfield, Iowa last summer and saw all these restaurants selling Indian food. The reason: It’s home to the Maharishi University of Management, formerly Fairfield University.  These are the transcendental meditation folks who used to own lots of property in eastern Watauga County and had built a meditation center there called Heavenly Mountain.

I thought about them this morning because of our story on what’s happened to the land. The TM connection is gone, and the property—all 6,000 acres—is going to be developed as a huge mountain resort with more than 1,000 homes.

It’s hard to get your arms—literally and figuratively—around how big 6,000 acres is. So here’s the deal. It’s a little more than 9 square miles. Picture a square with each side being three miles. It’s huge.

In much of the mountains, development and tourism are the top industries. And second and third homes for the wealthy are on some levels almost perfect for county governments because the homeowners pay a lot in taxes but don’t require much in the way of services such as schools. It’s why Dare and Currituck counties on the coast, for example, have some of the lowest tax rates in the state.

But you have to wonder about what the gating of the mountains means in the long run to our collective heritage and our sense of ownership in the wondrous resources North Carolina has to offer.

We got a request a few days ago from a law-enforcement agency to use some photos from our archive. They wanted to post them as part of an investigation. We declined.

This wasn’t out of spite or a desire not to help. We just don’t think that is the best way we can help. A newspaper functions best as an independent organization, a watchdog, rather than as an agent of the state. Once, we start turning over our files to public agencies, we’ve given up that independence and the freedom that comes with just having a note pad and a penchant for asking questions.

This ties back to some extent to the Judith Miller case of last year and a more recent one involving the SEC and a reporter’s notes. The Miller case was to a large extent about confidential sources, but it’s also about government agencies trying to get the media to help them do their jobs.

The way we help is simple. We write stories. Then public officials can read them and decide what to do.

One more thing: Wake Forest may not be winning a lot of games, but you gotta love their understanding of world events. Only Skip Prosser would use the phrase causi belli in a quote. Not to be outdone, Eric Williams gives a nice summation of European history with this quip: “Coach always talks about me being selfish, but at the same time I’m not going to be stupid. I’m not going to try to fight my way through the Russian Army.”

I don’t like to hawk too, too many things on OTTERBLOG, but I wanted to make folks aware of two milestone events happening in our newsroom that are important because a) they’re very cool and b) they get at the way the newspaper and our Web site are collaborating in areas that alter how we do our jobs and how readers interact with us.

Number one is our first online chat, which will be this Monday. It’s about anxiety disorders (no jokes, please). Here’s how to take part. Yeah, we’re not exactly the first newspaper to host an online chat, but it’s a big deal nonetheless because as with most things in life you have to start somewhere.

Number two is our reader travel-photo archive. More info here. It’s a place to share travel memories, look at your neighbor’s pictures, and get ideas on where to go and what you might see when you get there.

Both of these projects underscore the tremendous possibilities available in a digital newsroom, where technology enables you to do things without the constraint of newsprint. And they also illustrate the way technology is rewriting the definition of community. Physical geography is now only one factor. For newspapers, which have a delivery system built on physical geography, i.e.  roads, this is a bit scary, but that model now only takes you so far.

One definition of journalism: A bunch of English majors trying to write about numbers.

A bit of a stretch? Probably. But a lot of journalism is trying to make sense of the world we live in and report on trends and indicators that show whether progress is being made. We take solace in numbers and science. They’re hard and seemingly objective.

Maybe not. There’s a fascinating article in American Scientist about the train wrecks that frequently happen when politics and science meet. The main point is that science is so broad and so deep that scientific measurements and observations can too often be used to arrive at competing conclusions.

What we choose to measure and how we choose to measure it inform the results we get.

There’s not really a good alternative to eliminating research from the body of evidence used to make political decisions or to back up newspaper stories. What this author pushes for is better disclosure, that the experts not paint themselves as unbiased observers. And also this: first clarify the values and goals, then bring in the science to see how we get there and how we are doing.

A friend brought by some interesting ads that ran in the Journal in 1932.  The first, on Feb. 4, was for Lucky Strike, and features Douglas Fairbanks Jr.  and his tough-guy persona extolling the “toasted” taste of Luckies.  The second, on Feb. 6, is for Camels. The pitchman? Douglas Fairbanks pere, complete with jungle togs etc.

As the Virginia Slims folks might say, “You’ve come a long way, Baby.”

Just how far became clearer yesterday when the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to allow Reynolds and Lorillard to keep alive their lawsuit that California’s anti-smoking ads—essentially paid for by the tobacco companies—was too harsh and punitive.

Maybe the next round of these ads will feature Carl and Rob Reiner?

Y’know how every once in a while, in The Family Circus, they run a little disclaimer that says Bill Keane is on vacation and his son “Billy” is going to draw the strip?

That’s a little how I feel looking at the new logo of the N.C. Lottery.

This is the best we could do? From the choice of colors to the misshapen lighthouse that looks perched on the backs of what appears to be two giant fishes to the sun and star rising or is it setting in the west, it all looks slightly off.

Yes, the lottery commission is on a tight schedule, and, yes, it’s hard to imagine that anybody is going to play the lottery because of a logo, but that doesn’t mean we have to settle. Remember the state motto: Esse Quam Vidieri. It’s not Soso Quam Vidieri

The budget document that the General Assembly approves is not terribly exciting. It’s 300-plus pages of legal language and dollar signs. Lots of those.

Sandwiched or hidden—depending on your point of view—in the budget was a provision requiring kids to get eye exams before starting school. That’s now the subject of litigation from a variety of groups that claim it’s expensive and unconstitutional. They cite Section 2 of Article IX.

The provision came courtesy of Rep. Jim Black, the house speaker and a politician with his share of troubles these days. Because of those troubles, it’s easy to pile on and blame Black for eyegate.

But there’s more to it than that. Unsavory special provisions get passed for one of two reasons: either legislators bow to power or they don’t read the bills they vote on. It goes back to the old argument: is it better to be a fool or a crook?

I was getting my weekend fix of Bugs Bunny yesterday. Saw the episode “High Diving Hare,” with Bugs and Yosemite Sam. Quick story line. Bug is running a vaudeville act. His star performer is Fearless Freep. Yosemite Sam is a big fan of FF, so he buys a lot of tickets. FF doesn’t show. YS gets mad. Bugs gets the best of him. As always.

But it’s the way that Bugs learns of the no-show that is key to the conversation here. He gets a telegram. Yes, a telegram. Bugs is timeless, but it’s also dated. Another episode on the DVD had a game at the Polo Grounds…

Quick. When was the last time you got a telegram? Or used a pay phone? Can’t remember? Join the club.

Coincidentally with the Bugs marathon on the DVD was a story in our Sunday business section on the collapse of the pay phone and telegram industries. They’re essentially gone, replaced by cell phones, email, text messaging etc.

They join the growing heap of technology—floppy disks, cassette tapes, video tapes—that once seemed vital and now seem quaint at best. Most technology is transitional. Sometimes the transition is just so slow that you can’t see the transition happening. But it is. Whether with the automobile, the telephone or the ways that people get their news.

Good read: Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time. This is a fascinating look at the people who stayed in the Dust Bowl rather than joining the migration to the west that John Steinbeck wrote about in The Grapes of Wrath.