I’m glad to see that a friend of mine just landed a job almost two years after he was laid off. He’s in my career transition support group. He was overdue some good fortune. He and his wife have kids to support, her freelance work has shrunk lately, and their finances have been squeezed. He’s [...]
Archive for the ‘Current events’ Category
People to hire
Posted in Current events, Looking for work on June 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Wall Street reform
Posted in Current events on April 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A recent poll found one segment of American society actually had a lower approval rating than Congress. The Pew Research Center, in its April 18 report on “Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor,” had one question on “Effect on way things are going in the country.” At the top of the list (least positive, most [...]
Partisan divide
Posted in Current events on March 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I know that a lot of people I grew up with in Carrollton, Ga., disagree with me politically. There are some here in North Carolina who do as well. They don’t care much for Barack Obama. They think the health insurance bill amounted to a “government takeover.” They’re probably fans of Fox News and Rush [...]
Bad news
Posted in Current events on March 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Another newspaper friend lost his job today. His newspaper in Newport News, Va., is outsourcing editing and design work to corporate headquarters in Chicago. It’s another bad sign for newspapers, but hardly surprising these days. From a financial standpoint I suppose it made sense. Save the local reporting jobs by cutting editors and designers. But [...]
A new decade
Posted in Current events, Family and friends on December 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Ten years ago I had no idea who Carolyn Quarterman was. Hardly anyone outside of Chicago knew who Barack Obama was. A lot has happened and changed in the decade since the new millennium dawned. 1999 was a momentous year for me. I bought a new house and moved in in April. That would be [...]
Muslim terrorists
Posted in Current events on November 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m no expert in Islam, but I don’t think it’s a religion of terrorism. Islam can be distorted by extremists like any religion can, including Hinduism, Christianity, and Judaism. Some friends of mine seem to think Islam and terrorism are synonymous and Muslims are all terrorist sympathizers. This issue came up again with the shootings [...]
Civil debate
Posted in Current events, Jack's favorites on August 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve seen two presidential campaign speeches live – Bill Clinton in Augusta, Ga., in 1992 and Barack Obama in Raleigh, N.C., last year. One of the key differences between the two were the protest disruptions for Clinton’s speech and the absence of disruptions for Obama’s. There were a few protesters outside of the park where [...]
Historic moments
Posted in Current events on July 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
What I miss and will continue to miss about no longer working for a newspaper is not being on the job as history unfolds. I’ve always been fascinated by history, and journalism has been a good match for that. I was more interested in working with the national and international news than the local news. [...]
