It's Not All Fun In Rockies Land

The Colorado Rockies are the toast of Colorado. The so called kid Rocks keep winning, and thousands of fans who never gave the ball club a look are now filling Coors Field, emptying their wallets on crisp fall evenings. You'd think the management would be happy raking in all that extra dough. Turns out, they are a little greedy. Many folks, bandwagon fans like myself, bought tickets online to Game 4 of the National League Division Series. It's a game that was never played since those young Rockies have forgotten how to lose. Instead of refunding money quickly for those tickets that cost anywhere from 10 bucks to near 100, the Front Office is saying it'll take four to six weeks for money to be credited. To boot, they won't be giving back a few of the dollars charged for service fees. C'mon. They're making us pay for the privilege of holding tickets to a game that never happened. Seems like another way to rip off a fan's hard-earned money. At least we catch a buzz off the 6-buck beers.

Never Learned This Lesson:

Don't write in print what you cannot back up in real life. The last time I tried to run a marathon, I proclaimed my intention to do so in the pages of the Aurora Sentinel, where at the time I served as managing editor. The column took a bit of a cocky, all-knowing tone.
Despite developing a vigor for running that few thought was possible, a knee injury sidetracked my aspirations. Many at the paper gave their ever-so-confident editor what we'll label a little bit of grief for failing.
That was two years ago. Two days ago, I decided it was time to try for another 26.2-mile jog. This time, I am 20 pounds heavier, a fact my girlfriend knows all to well. But that doesn't mean I didn't learn enough from my first go round to think this effort will be a success.
Although apparently I didn't learn anything about keeping my desire out of print. At least I'm a bit more humble this time.

Respect Speech, Don't Just Protect Its Freedom

There's a lesson to be learned about J. David McSwane's disastrous editorial that appeared in the Colorado State University student newspaper. It has nothing to do with free speech, or the controversy surrounding the "F*ck Bush, Taser That" line that garnered national attention.
McSwane will graduate soon and carry some lesson learned that will hopefully help him later on in his career. That's what college newspapers are supposed to do: Throw you into the fire and see if you can figure out a way to escape without burns deep enough to make folks cringe when they look your way.
There's an advisor to tell you what you did right and wrong. After you go to press. This means 21-year-old students are going to make mistakes, some more long lasting than others, and they are going to wind up in newsprint.
I can relate, although I never made national headlines with anything I ever let slip into print as the managing editor the University of Colorado newspaper.
I just left scars in the minds of a handful of young women dealing with the loss of their friend. Scars that still have a few of them loathing me nearly six years later.
One of their friends, a popular sorority girl, was mowed down by a speeding car at 2:30 a.m. one weekend night. She died that night. The girl driving the car was a stripper. She fled the scene, only to turn herself in the next day.
The headlines and stories following said Terrible Stripper Kills Innocent Sorority Girl. Or something to that effect.
Our staff decided that wasn't the case. That the stripper shouldn't be tried in the court of public opinion before the facts came out. I still agree with that argument to this day.
But I didn't know how to write well then. And my prose was far from elegant. My column read like I was defending the stripper (who, by the way, never served jail time).
I received a hate filled letter from virtually every girl in that sorority.
Bottom line, my point was lost and all I did was hurt feelings.
My close friend who has known me since that day is currently seeing the best friend of the girl killed that day on The Hill in Boulder. She witnessed the death. My words did nothing but open the wound further. She barely can look me in the face now.
Words are a powerful thing, and it took me writing a devastating column in a school newspaper to realize that.
J. David McSwane learned how powerful the written word is, too. So hopefully he now understands how respecting speech is just as important as protecting the freedom of it.