A Time For Looking Back

I can't believe how much weight I gained since last year.

How do I know it's been a year since I piled on 12 pounds?

Well, a year from last Tuesday I was laid off from my job at The Dallas Morning News.

Interestingly, several of the people who were laid off at the same time held a party or get-together. Maybe it was media networking. Who cares. I didn't go, and for a damn good reason:

I don't want to hear other people's misanthropic crap stories.

I want to remember my time at The News as good. I got a job there right out of college with no major newspaper internship. That doesn't often happen. But it did for me.

Not only that, but I was working with some of the smartest people in the business. The Editorial Department at The Dallas Morning News is second to none. They are about so much more than the editorials you see in the second-to-last page in the A section every day. They work hard to generate ideas and make a difference.

Now, I haven't agreed with all of their ideas or the way they've been implemented (like, can we chill out on the number of blogs already?), but when they decide to get behind something, to do something right, they almost always succeed.

When Keven Ann Willey took over the Editorial Department, that was probably the best thing to happen for them and the voice of the newspaper. The department became more about doing and less about talking.

First it was recorded votes in the Legislature. They ended up Pulitzer finalists in 2008 for that effort (the Pulitzer jury did not award a prize for editorial writing that year. It was also the year that Willey was a jurist).

Now, The News' Editorial Board has won a Pulitzer. And I have to say, it's for a lot better cause than recorded votes (although that's pretty cool, too). The folks over there have done some excellent work, some real and tenacious journalism, about the systemic poverty that exists in much of southern Dallas, and how the city has ignored the problem for much too long.

Congratulations to them. I couldn't be more thrilled.