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OpinionAug. 27, 1998Monahan's WellBy Jerry Curry Richard Acosta came to this newspaper before I did more than two years ago. He was then and remains a student in the journalism school at the University of Texas-Permian Basin, which is in Odessa and that fact should not be held against UTPB. Richard also is from Odessa, which also should not be held against him although he is a Mojo fanatic who cried after last football season's unfortunate contest with Odessa High. We have Richard's word Mojo will be back and I sincerely believe him. If I were an Odessa High adherent, I would not want to play Permian this year. Richard began writing sports for us and then he branched out into everything including obituaries and real news. Scheduled for Winter graduation from UTPB this year, Richard was the editor of that school's newspaper last year. He is on track to graduate with honors. In the past two years, I like to think Richard has learned about this business. I do know Richard is the major reason our newspaper's sports section won first in the 1998 Texas Press Association competition where we also were named first in general excellence, which means the best in all Texas. Richard learned more here than how writing and reporting and design works in the real world. He learned things that cannot be taught in a college journalism school no matter how good the journalism school purports to be. They don't tell you in journalism school how to interact with extremely upset wild hogs that wander in from the desert and don't know why you want to take their picture. They don't tell you in journalism school how to respond if the Crane police chief starts yelling because you wrote a story that said the bloody mystery of a Crane motel room isn't a mystery after all. They don't tell you in journalism school how to react when someone begs you not to publish the fact they have been convicted of driving while intoxicated because it will destroy their life if you publish it. They don't tell you in journalism school that what everyone says is true is false more than 99 percent of the time. Richard learned all that and a little more. He learned an appreciation for the art and the craft of journalism. He learned a newspaper man has to have a vocation for the work as surely as a clergyman's. He learned the only people who don't make mistakes are those who do nothing. He learned a journalist must say the emperor (or the president) has no clothes - if the emperor (or the president) is naked. Richard learned people do blame the messenger and the messenger must have thick skin and more than a little attitude to do well. This week Richard leaves The Monahans News, which he helped make a better newspaper. He is going to work at the Midland Reporter Telegram, which the Texas Press Association cited first in general excellence for Texas dailies this year. Richard leaves the best weekly in the state for the best daily in the state. He has been given this opportunity a semester before he graduates. He goes to a position for which young journalists, already graduated, would kill. At the Reporter-Telegram, Richard Acosta will work the police beat, which is the place all young reporters should start. The police beat is graduate work in humility and the need to check, check and check again before reporting anything. We wish him well. Monahans gets dumped onWe were feeling good about the fact we at least had stalled with logic and common sense the proposed nuclear waste dump at Sierra Blanca and the certain rolling of all that radioactive Yankee trash down Interstate 20 through Ward County. Strangely, some bureaucrats finally looked at a geological map of the Sierra Blanca area and discovered fault lines that triggered earthquakes in the past and will in the future.. Then on Wednesday, Aug. 19, James H. Ogden Jr. of the Texas
Carlsbad? New Mexico? Aren't those the same people that
Ogden and Weeks said we didn't have to worry. Only about a
How long will it take to mop up "really dangerous" nuclear
Look to China, Bug out BillOnly a little while after Bill Clinton said he did not consider perjury all that bad, the draft dodger ordered Tomahawk strikes on terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and an aspirin factory in the Sudan which Bug Out Bill says had the capability to produce precursors for chemical weapons. The reason, says Bug Out Bill, is the terrorist bombings and mass killings at two United States embassies in Africa. Strikes against the camps were long overdue. While Bug Out Bill is about it, he also might tell the sailors to fire a few cruise missiles at the training camps in Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Iran and China. Bug Out Bill should have ordered all of those strikes the day he took the oath of office for his first term. We are not sure about the Sudanese antibiotic and pain-reliever factory. Precursors for chemical weapons can be produced in any small town pharmacy and most home kitchens. But if Bug Out Bill needs a real target, chemical weapons are stockpiled in China where the word is production not precursor.
Joe Warren, Publisher 107 W. Second St., Monahans TX 79756 Phone 915-943-4313, FAX 915-943-4314 e-mail monnews@ultravision.net Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
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