Your belief in us has helped us believe in ourselves

Commentary

By Elwin Green

09.14.04

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Elwin Green

Elwin Green, a fellow in the sixth session of the Diversity Institute, spoke on behalf of his classmates at the group's Aug. 27, 2004, graduation. Green, a former tax-return specialist and marketing representative, has since joined the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a business writer.

I want to briefly express three things this morning. I want to express gratitude, I want to express encouragement, and I want to express intent.

I want to express gratitude to the staff of the Diversity Institute and to all the folks in the Freedom Forum who have made this moment possible. My wife, and my friends in Pittsburgh whom I spoke to over the summer, can tell you that I spent at least the first three weeks here in a state of shock. I literally could not believe what was happening to me. This is what kept going through my mind:

"Wait a minute. You want me in this program where I'll be in residence for three months, and I don't have to pay rent? Or pay for parking? You want to give me a meal voucher? You want to give me books, and you want me to have classroom instruction without paying tuition? And you want to pay me a stipend? And all I have to do is learn?"

I was in shock — not only because it was such a deal, but because it went totally against one of my strongest convictions, which is that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Once I got over my shock, of course, I accepted the fact that it didn't go against that conviction. The lunches weren't really free, nor were the dinners, nor the books, nor the apartment. Free to me just means somebody else is paying for it.

So when I say that I want to express gratitude, let me be clear that I am not only saying, thank you for doing all the work that made it possible for us to be here, I'm also saying "Thank you for paying the bills." I think it safe to say that if my classmates and I had had to pay for this program, we would not be here.

But most of all, on behalf of the class, I want to say thank you, not just for spending money on us, but for having faith in us. From the beginning, you have all communicated one message consistently, even when you used different words: You can do this. Those of us who did not feel confident at the beginning have gained confidence during this time. Hearing you express your belief in us has helped us to believe in ourselves — to believe that not only can we be journalists, but that we can be excellent journalists. And yes, that includes copy editors.

And as we prepare to enter the field, we realize that that's how we can and must pay our share of the bill for this experience — that the best way to express our gratitude is to do quality work, and work of increasing quality, for the remainder of our careers.

Which leads to the word of encouragement to my fellow Fellows. Simply put, do your best each day, and each day learn to do better.

But I would like to contextualize that, by adding: Write to be read by the world.

I mean that literally. I suspect that every newspaper that we're going to has a Web site. That means that, regardless of your paper's circulation, your writing can be read by anyone in the world with an Internet connection. And more of the world is getting wired every day. Peter Gabriel tells the story somewhere of traveling through a desolate patch of sub-Saharan Africa and coming across a bushman leaning against a tree, tapping away on his Apple PowerBook. In India, villages are being supplied with computer kiosks that allow people who may not even have running water access to a flow of information unprecedented in human history.

A New Delhi student of public policy, doing research on immigration, may reference stories by Dana Maria Arellano in the Imperial Valley Press. An African student of the civil rights movement may download a project story on the anniversary of the Selma march by Tarana Burke. We just don't know.

Write to be read by the world.

Finally, I want to express an intention. By way of background, let me make a confession. During my phone interview, I asked if there were any aspects of the program that previous Fellows said had surprised them. One of the answers was the quality of the relationships that were formed here.

Well, I didn't place much weight on that answer. In my mind, I was coming to Nashville to gain information and to develop skills, not to make friends.

Dang if it didn't happen anyway.

So now here's the intention: I intend to remain part of each of your lives and to have you as part of mine for as long we're on the planet. As Lou Grant said in the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore show, "I cherish you people."

We've been encouraged to view ourselves in terms of our leadership potential. I don't know about becoming an editor myself, but maybe in five or 10 years I'll barge into an editor's office at the Houston Chronicle and the secretary will say, "Excuse me, sir, do you have an … " and I'll say, "I don't need an 'appointment'; I'm DI 6." Or maybe the publisher's office at the Danville Advocate Messenger: "I'm sorry, Mr. Amos, he just..." "That's all right; he's cool." Or the mayor's office in Norman, Oklahoma: "Mr. Mayor, there's a black gentleman here who says he's your father."

You're all stuck with me. And here's why that might actually matter at some point. If I do gain any degree of influence of power in the journalistic community, I commit myself now to share it with you. If I'm an editor 20 years from now, and my phone rings and I pick it up and hear, "Hello, my name is Eamonn Green. I'm a student at such-and-such school, and I'm looking for an internship." Then I will say, "You Elizabeth's boy? Come on down, son!"

Let's change America's newsrooms, not just by our work, but by our relationships.

DI 6 forever!