Disappointing Journalism

This morning the following article was published in the East Valley Tribune...I decided to do something about it.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/124886

Here is what I wrote to the author of the article:

Dear Mr. Griffiths-

I am writing this in hopes that I am not the only one in the East Valley that was more than disgusted with not only the topic of the story you decided to cover, but the length as well. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and one who has served a two-year mission representing the church, I understand that there are many people in this world who, for whatever reasons of their own, are opposed to everything that we believe in. It would be wrong if members of the Church published articles in newspapers about how wrong other churches are, or founded support groups for those who are "misled from other faiths" but we do not believe that, nor do we take such action.

I have a question for you, Lawn, could you please explain to me (and I'm not even asking for a long explanation) why you saw it so necessary in today's highly charged and headline filled time, to dedicate a full page (8 pages from the front page) to a group concerned about Mormons who realized they didn't have faith and decided to leave? I say again, I am fully aware that there are people out there who have disagreed and currently disagree with our beliefs, Mormon and those not of our faith. But, and ths is where I hope I am not the only one who noticed this, it appears as though by you publishing this extensive article (the RNC hardly beat your article in coverage!!! The race for the next President of the United States for crying out loud!!!) you too are concerned about all those wayward Mormons and their crazy beliefs. Not once in your article did you publish any facts about how many people unite themselves annually with the church...almost 300,000. Ask our dear and concerned friends how concerned they are about that. I ask you to ask them, Mr. Griffiths, because you seem to be equally concerned as you saw fit to announce your concerns on a large scale to the entire East Valley.

There have been few times in my life when I have read something so lacking of logical reasoning and true journalistic character than when I read your article this morning. You yourself as a writer and as an supposed journalist should probably take a step back and re-read your article. I hope that there is some glimmer of a chance that you too will realize how ridiculous the concept is of spending that much of the periodical on your story, especially with so many other topics that could have been covered.

Again I am appalled and disgusted with your remarks, and myself along with my parents, many friends, and many family both within and without the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, am serisouly reconsidering my initial decision of subscribing to this newspaper. I am sending a copy of this article to the editor of the paper as well as many of my associates in hopes that you will be reprimanded in some way for your decision to take so much space covering a topic of little value. I am fully within my right mind to request either an apology from you, or some kind of article written in response covering the many thousands of people in the East Valley who have found just the opposite of everything said in your article. I for myself have found the utmost peace, joy, and happiness as a member of this church. It is sad that our dear friend didn't find his faith to be as strong, but there are thousands who daily receive witnesses that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. Millions have experienced renewed faith in Jesus Christ and serve Him daily. I and many others have feelings just as strong or stronger in the support of the truthfulness of the doctrines of this church, than do those who vehemently oppose our beliefs and seek to undermine them on a global scale.

It is sad that a single publication, such as yours, could dissuade any number of people to withdraw themselves from the periodical as a whole. But regretfully, Mr. Griffiths, that is exactly what you have done.

Regards,

Michael Hale

If you have any questions or comments for me, I can easily be reached at:
mahale@asu.edu
home- 480.834.3041
cell- 480.390.5345

What the heck is a blog?

Yep, it's official ladies and gents, Michael Hale has joined the wonderful addition to our society's means of communication to potentially numberless audiences around the globe...or a fancy description of a blog. Yes, I am aware that I answered my own question, but thanks for checking on me.

So I was coaxed into creating one of these things by a good friend and I'm still not really sure why. But I guess more for my sake than anyone else's, I can publish the intricacies of my daily life for convenient future review or memory recall should such recall be needed at some point. And if by some miracle a person or two should happen onto this small space of "me" maybe there's a chance they can glean some advice or pseudo-wisdom from this neatly organized collection of html scripts. Who knows?

So I started school this past Monday at Arizona State University and had what could very well have been the two worst days of my life. Don't ask me to regurgitate previous reasoning as to why I chose to major in Mechanical Engineering because, believe me, I've tried to conjure up that same reasoning myself and have yet to enjoy any such luck. To give a little background on what exactly contributed to my bout with insanity, I will list the classes in which I am currently enrolled: Calculus 3, Modern Differential Equations, Physics 2, Statics and Dynamics, and Engineering Design. Added to my list of personal blunders and under-achievements (don't worry I don't actually keep a written record of this list) I elected to take Calculus 1, Calculus 2, and Physics 1 before my mission. Who knows why it didn't occur to me that Calculus 3, Physics 2, and Differential Equations would all be dependent upon my performance in those exact courses. Well, had I thought it through more thoroughly (wow that's a lot of -ough combinations!) I would have taken those classes in sequence as they are meant to be taken...but hindsight is always 20-20 right? So my lot in life for this semester is to work my tail off re-learning calculus and somehow manage to take calculus at the same time. Trust me, when it's all over you'll think I'm amazing too!

However, I was--despite how terribly bad this all sounds--able to find a little respite from the chaos and enjoy a small twinge of sick humor as I sat in my differential equations class on Tuesday. As I was sitting there watching the teacher write unethically fast, I couldn't help but make a few notes about what was actually taking place in that classroom. Clearly this man was speaking a language I didn't understand. I later came to the conclusion that he was speaking either Mandarin or Hindi...or some ridiculous mixture of the two. The reason I came to that conclusion is because the 3 Chinese kids and the 2 Indian kids in the class seemed to precisely understand every single word that came out of his mouth. Now how the crap is that fair?!? You can't just go around teaching an upper-level math class in Mandarin because the only people that are going to benefit are the Chinese! No wonder all of America's jobs are getting outsourced over seas...they're not teaching the classes in English!! Once I figured it all out I was able to, as I mentioned earlier, glean a little humor from the situation and take it all with a big smile. I think I can learn the language, it's going to take some work though. I'll keep you posted.

As for my sanity, somehow it was maintained as I made it through the week relatively unscathed. Unfortunately I'm not given an option as to whether or not I want to push my luck and go for a second week...I have to do it anyway. So let's just hope luck is on my side this time shall we? I'm game.