Memories of the 2008 Flood

Over a year ago, the cities of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and several other large (and small) towns in Iowa were destroyed by floods from the rising Iowa and Cedar Rivers. After several days of rain and no signs of cresting, people took their cities and homes, doing everything in their power to save the lives they’d created there. I helped sandbag on the University of Iowa campus, right on the banks of the Iowa River. I wrote about my day in the rain, watching the river rise, and thought I would share it here:

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It hasn’t stopped.

The river is rising and raging, taking trees and shrubs in its path. Furniture pops up now and again from property swept along the way, and you can see the rising water levels in real time. Just check your watch and check back in half an hour and it’s guaranteed you’ll see a tree just a little more underwater.

Today I worked down by the river on the sandbag brigade, attempting to build a Berlin Wall of sandbags against the banks of the third most endangered waterway in the United States, the Iowa River. The crest isn’t expected for another couple of weeks, and citizens, students and everyone in between is biting their nails for the impending storm, which I can conveniently hear right outside my window. My shoes, covered in mud and now washed, are drying in my hallway. I can still feel the grit of sand on my palms.

It is inspiring though, and there’s no doubt about that. Hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers attempting to salvage the historic campus and vital buildings by getting down and dirty (and sweaty) on the banks of the Iowa River. Prior to sandbagging, I gave a hand in the University Book Store, where several employees and volunteers boxed and bagged merchandise to ship out to a temporary “shop” location in the Old Capitol Mall. With the Hawk gear and books out of harms way, we unfortunately have to wait and see what damage this water does to the building when it comes–and it’s coming.

Parents of orientation students were angry when they couldn’t shop the black and gold apparel, hoping to don the best t-shirt in pride about their son or daughter’s choice in college. Others, however, were more concerned about the efforts.

“I came in just to buy a t-shirt,” one volunteer confessed. “Now I’ve been here boxing up for two hours.”

Sweaty, with a t-shirt, jeans and a fanny pack, this woman explained she was here only for a few days while her daughter toured the new campus. “We’re from Minnesota,” she said. “And my daughter chose this over our university, and I’m glad. Everyone here has been so nice, and the teamwork makes me proud my daughter is going to be a Hawkeye. We were a maroon and gold family only, but now we’ll add black to the mix.”

It was touching. Here a mother of an 18-year-old was visiting the state right below, but nonetheless a Midwest state. Proudly she picked up a tape roll and a box, and began building box after box while university employees packed up merchandise.

Outside, sandbaggers cheered each other on, helped each other carry bags, and in some cases laughed. “You’re doing a great job, guys, if you get dirty, TOO BAD! That’s what you’re here for,” the sandbag chief yelled, which followed with clapping, hooting and hollering by the mounds of volunteers and National Guardsmen helping for the afternoon.

There’s something to be said for natural disasters: They’re awful, they’re scary but they sure bring people together.

Are we robots? Possibly.

In light of the unmistakable trend to text, e-mail and do virtually all forms of communication via digital devices, a featured article in TIME forecasted the death of the art of handwriting. Where exactly has it gone?

The writer, Claire Suddath, is a member of Generation Y — the same generation I come from — and points out that Generation, well, Z, is coming up at full-force without so much as an inkling of how to write in cursive.

How much cursive is left in our world? Suddath herself finds the “behemoth Coca-Cola signature” as nothing more than “handiwork by a bookkeeper” and while the art of printing and handwriting are still taught in the nation’s schools, no children seem to master the art. Meanwhile, children everywhere roll their eyes or furrow their brows as they try to decipher a cheery birthday card from a grandmother or great aunt.

I will admit, even I’m used to using computers as my primary means of communication. Well, that and telephones but I don’t mean texting (in fact I despise the text message). But when I find myself writing a card to my great aunt and uncle in Surprise, Ariz. or a little card to my grandmother, I can feel the muscles in my hands saying, “Wait, this isn’t the hunched position we use to type. What are you doing to us?!” If they could scream in confusion or agony, they would.

Suddath even points out that handwriting lessons — the lined papers we grew up with where we practiced every Q, Z and other difficult and silly-looking letters — have decreased from 30 minutes per day to 15. Have we really strayed this far from the age-old art of handwriting?

Not to sound preachy but it seems No Child Left Behind is partly to blame, according to teachers in the article who cite the importance of “teaching for the tests” as more important than holding a pencil and using it correctly. Reading may still be stressed, Linda Garcia, a teacher in Williamette, Ill. said, but not the handwriting.

It’s interesting how we’ve pushed handwriting to the side. In a 1970 article by TIME (linked at the bottom of the previous mentioned story), handwriting and writing in general seems to be a great form of therapy and self-help when it comes to emotion.

Now to my personal opinion: Absolutely correct. At a mere 13 years old, I was diagnosed with anxiety disorder, a disease that can be crippling when it gets out of control. The death of several family members over the course of four years put me on edge, and I noticed at night that my heart would race, I would become short of breath and as I described it — “felt like I was strapped to train tracks without a train coming.” I knew I wouldn’t die, but I felt like I was about to enter the light.

To subside my anxiety and overwhelming thoughts, my child psychologist at the time suggested I start recording my thoughts, either how I was feeling at the time of the panic attack or simply the events in my day. I started this trend at 13 and 12 years later, I still write in a journal. Now, however, it’s switched to this.

I still read my old journals not just to see the petty problems that were plaguing my mind and comparing them to today’s struggles (bills, health insurance, student loans, etc.) but to see how my handwriting has changed, and it has. As a journalist I admit it’s gotten sloppier. Speedy note-taking and off-the-cuff interviews have adapted me to using many abbreviations. I own a shorthand book and had a professor at St. Ambrose U give me some pointers on shorthand but I haven’t really figured it out yet. It’s like relearning the ABCs, and that was hard enough the first time around.

Hopefully schools find the benefit in teaching penmanship and the art that’s involved. Knitting and crocheting seem to be making a comeback with young people, so maybe the cell phones and QWERTY keyboards can be laid down for pencils, pens and some nice stationary. Check out the importance of handwriting in 1942 — when telegrams were making a break but the pen and pencil still reigned surpreme.

In the meantime, crack those fingers and pick up a utensil. Several handwriting analyses online can tell you exactly what your handwriting says about your personality. Can’t really do that with a text message or e-mail, can you?

Note: This one is one where you write with the mouse. Still fun, regardless.
http://handwriting.feedbucket.com/

Handwriting Analysis by Discovery Investigations:
http://investigation.discovery.com/investigation/quiz-central/dna-forensics/handwriting.html

Compare your letters (Don’t cheat! Do it without thinking!)
http://www.ofesite.com/graphology/hand1_start.htm

Know your limits

It’s been a while since I blogged, and clearly this blog hasn’t exactly been as active as I’d hoped. I’ve had all summer, which has now come and gone.

I do start teaching at the end of this month, however, so maybe my musings will be about my students’ progress and work in the newswriting and digitial imaging courses I’ll be instructing.

Now to the news: With help from former President Bill Clinton and former VP Al Gore, the two journalists that were held in a North Korean prison have been released. Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been released to American custody after allegedly crossing the border of N. Korea without clearance. Their safe return is a sigh of relief for family, friends, and journalists everywhere. The two women were stopped by border patrol on March 17 and taken into custody by the government who had no intention of letting them go.

According to the New York Times, Al Gore was the possible candidate to head over and retrieve the reporters, at the request of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The North Koreans allegedly requested the former president instead. The two reporters were released in less than an hour.

However, their capture raises important questions in journalistic ethic: Do you take the risk and travel abroad to get the story, or should you study up before jumping into a jungle.

In a similar situation, three young American hikers have been captured by the Iran government claiming the adventurers are spies, while supporters of the hikers claim they were “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

I feel for these people, I do, but what would prompt a group of young people to go hiking in the Middle East, especially near Iran during the crisis we’ve been in for the last seven years? It seems like the last likely (or fun) place to hike. I do hope for the safe return of these individuals, but journalists (and apparently vacationers) need to learn the facts before jumping into a challenging  journey.

Updates: My Life.

There will be little to no creativity in this blog. Simply updates on my life and things coming up in the next few months. Thought I should share with my close friends and relatives in MySpace World.

First: I’m moving to the Quad-Cities next month — July 19 to be precise, and Davenport to be even more precise. I found a great apartment near Palmer, a few blocks from River Road which I will take to work every day. Second: I’m starting my job as a faculty member at Scott Community College in late August. I’ll be teaching news writing I and II, digital photography and advising the campus paper, to start. It’s only part time at SCC for now, so I’m in the market for another job and one with benefits, too.

I’m still writing for the Quad-City Times, and this month. They’re planning on keeping me writing when I move to Davenport. I imagine the story count will pick up because I’ll be on-site for stories, unlike doing them by phone from my home office in Iowa City. For now I’m working at the Hawk Shop (again) setting up and working for Summer Sports Camps; orientation and helping close our humble little shop in the Hall of Fame building. HOF gets little to no traffic and sadly we must shut down our Hawk Shop operations there. If you’re in the IC area, stop by the Hall of Fame. It’s impressive, neat and great for the family — they need the exposure and money. That’s about all for now. Andy and his pals are moving to their new place in early August, I think. They are only a block from Fareway, where they all work, and a gas station loaded with beer is in their backyard. Should be interesting. I’ll be in IC once or twice a month probably to keep working on my TV show as a co-producer and to visit friends and Andy still here in Hawkeye Country. My plan this summer was to take time off, travel and visit some people I haven’t seen in a while, but being that I”m paying two rents right now and only have so much money in my savings, I’m going to have to nix those plans and stay put.

Hope everytihng’s going well for you fine folks out there. Iowa City is mightly lonely without Jamie and right now, Kelsey, to keep company. It’s Andy and the boys and we don’t have much in common. I wish everyone well!

Whew.

It’s been a little while since I’ve written, and I apologize (to those readers that may be lurking out there). I’m writing a lot of stories for the Quad-City Times, just had a great gay marriage article printed in Little Village (links to come) and am preparing to move my life to the Quad Cities to start my new job as an adjunct instructor at Scott Community College.

What will I be teaching? News writing and digial photography. I intend to have my students question why they’re in a news writing class when the industry is starting to fall apart at the seams, but I think the applications learned in news writing will be beneficial for everyone. The most important thing to draw from news writing classes is how to talk to people. As someone who was petrified of phone interviews or talking to strangers, I’m more comfortable with strangers than friends and colleagues sometimes. I’m not kidding.

I hope to keep this blog fairly active. I hope to utilize it like a real blog — embedded links, comments, and hopefully lots of interesting commentary. But I have to tell you, I don’t have much interesting commentary to donate. My life is up in the air as I search for an apartment, crunch my budget and try to find another job to supplement my teaching pay.

Either way I’m excited for what lies ahead. I’m ready to move on from Iowa City. As much as I enjoy the city in the summer, it’s time to go. There’s not much left for me here that a visit can’t cure.

As for news, I hope it keeps breathing. The heartbeat it shallow but has not been snuffed out. Journalism can’t possible disappear. How would we funtion? Even obsessive twitterers can’t seem to enjoy their own 140-character updates without linking to a story or something on the ‘net. Even if it’s linked online, the root starts in reporting.

So reporters, journalists, writers — ex and current — put your torches together. The march toward thorough, journalistic practice will continue. Hurrah!

Welcome to troubled waters, news world.

Is it a dying medium? I hope not. A recent article in Time (February) highlights how we might be able to save our newspapers, although few answers are provided.

photo by Erin Tiesman

People aren’t paying for newspapers because they can get them free online. I knew this ages ago, but just how drastically is it affecting the business? Over 15,000 jobs in the newspaper industry were cut last year, some newsrooms slashing by 20%. In 2007, the job loss was less than a thousand. The age of technology is upon us, and we have to be prepared for major change.

My work in graduate school at the University of Iowa has been a learning lesson. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from my professors about long-form writing, depth reporting and detail. I’ve learned how to write leads, solid “nut grafs” and appropriate endings. I’ve also learned to freelance (sell) my articles, and I’ve learned what troubled waters we may be approaching. What I haven’t learned much about is the integration of online media in newsrooms. Fortunately my time at St. Ambrose University was a valuable lesson in that regard, because I worked with sound recording and television production, both pivotal tools in the merging of online journalism.

Writing for online has been stressed throughout both programs, and my SAU television “experience” taught me how writing styles for TV and the Web are strikingly similar. Instructor and mentor Alan Sivell told us to “write the way you speak.” There seems to be a good connection between writing for Web and writing for TV in some ways. I still enjoy writing long feature stories, however, and that just doesn’t seem to be what people want online. Why?

For starters, attention span isn’t what it used to be. Holding a newspaper or magazine in your hand is no different than a book, which is the root of my devotion to newspapers. Longer stories, complex sentences and easy to reach if you want the “bare bones” of the story. But the Web has become such a tool for speed and access, people don’t want to hassle with long stories while reading e-mails, sending texts and holding a Starbucks in hand.

Regardless of what people want in their news or how they obtain it, it’s up to journalism students and professional writers to keep writing good stories. Good is the key word. People want to read what interests them, but they need a reason to read. Many papers have begun “hyperlocal” reporting, covering every aspect of their neighborhood or community because hyperlocal is not something you can get on Google or Yahoo! news.

I’m told by visiting professionals to our school that hyperlocal and community journalism is a hot commodity. When these men and women ask students their “ideal writing job,” I always respond “community reporter.” It’s what I’ve been doing with the Quad-City Times for over five years, it’s what I enjoy more than anything. I love meeting people in my community, telling their stories and inspiring readers. There’s something to that. It’s quite snappy, you could say.

But now I’m in the home stretch–only three months until graduation. I’ll have a master’s degree in hand, a smile on my face and my fingers crossed behind my back while I venture into the most intense job-hunt of my life. We’re in a recession, newspapers are boarding up windows or cutting circulation. Public relations and communication specialist jobs are hot-to-trot and I’m not the only one clammering for benefits and a decent wage (I mean, all I want to do is pay my bills, is that too much to ask?). Through all of the anxiety and nail-biting, I remain hopeful that I’ll always be a news writer in some way, even if it’s freelancing for, well, free…or if it’s an active correspondent for a local paper.

There’s an old saying in journalism…”Journalism is the first rough draft of history.” How can you let it die? It won’t, it’s impossible…I think. I’ll keep crossing my fingers and saying my prayers in the meantime.

Hello world!

Thank you for visiting my professional blog and portfolio website. This blog address will showcase my curriculum vitae, samples of my work in both print and photography, and occasional blogs related to my job searching, graduate school courses and (hopeful) advancement in the field.

If you have questions or would like personal contact, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at erin.tiesman@gmail.com.

Best regards,
Erin B. Tiesman