But,  today I could not resist after reading news involving two prominent African American male politicians, one who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and other from my home state.  Both men happen to be Harvard Law School graduates.

President Obama addressed Morehouse graduates today in Atlanta. (Photo: Courtesy of Morehouse College)

As a proud Howard University graduate, I had to put the HBCU (historically black college and university) rivalries aside and watch with excitement the historic events earlier today at Morehouse College  in Atlanta.

HISTORY MADE AT MOREHOUSE

Despite the rain, more than 500 graduates of the nation’s only all-male historically black college had a chance to hear the President of the United States, who himself became an honorary “Morehouse man.”

“Whatever success I have achieved, whatever positions of leadership I have held have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs, and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy — the special obligation I felt, as a black man like you, to help those who need it most, people who didn’t have the opportunities that I had — because there but for the grace of God go I,” President Obama said.

Elsewhere in his 45-minute address,  the President made another admission.

“Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down,” he said as he strongly urged the Morehouse men to remember there’s’ no room for excuses in 2013.

Bishop E.W. Jackson is founder and president of Staying True to America’s National Destiny (STAND). He pastors Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Va.

Obama’s remarks came only hours after another African American male politician,  Bishop E.W. Jackson, accepted the Republican Party nomination to be the candidate for lieutenant governor of my home state of Virginia.

If elected, he would become the second African American-elected lieutenant governor since Reconstruction.  (The first was L. Douglas Wilder, who was later elected governor)

According to today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, Jackson received his greatest applause of the day from the thousands of delegates the Virginia GOP Convention he said the following:

“I’m no African-American, I’m an American!”

At the same time, in a YouTube video, Jackson appeals to Christians in “the black community”

“You and I cannot hide being black,”   Jackson said in the YouTube video that was posted September 2012.  He was criticizing those who compare the gay rights movement to the history of African Americans.

Matter of Politics?

So, whether or not you embrace your race  depends on who your audience is and the circumstances in which you’re speaking?

It matters who you’re trying to impress.

Now in the first year of his second term, President Obama has not made a great number of speeches on the issue of race. The Jeremiah Wright controversy prompted him to give his famous ” A More Perfect Union” address on race in Philadelphia in 2008 then as a presidential candidate.

Since then, today was one of the few times, he talked at length about his experience as a black man in America.   Keep in mind, Obama is bi-racial, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya.  But, his commencement address was made all the more significant because of his racial background.

It wasn’t just that this was the first time the President of the United States addressed a Morehouse graduation.  It was the fact that a fellow African American male who holds the highest office in the land addressed the graduating class.

So, in some groups, you embrace your race,  while in other settings, you don’t talk about the color of your skin.

PBS Anchor Gwen Ifill’s 2009 book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama addressed this issue.

Out of Context?

I’m sure Bishop Jackson would argue that I am taking his “I am not African American” quotation out of context.   Since I don’t have access to a transcript of his remarks at the Richmond Coliseum and was not there, I don’t have the benefit of hearing what came before and what came after the statement.

But,  I’m not sure the context would change the fact that he clearly wants to embrace his American-ness over his African American heritage.

As Jackson seeks to appeal to Virginia Voters this November, perhaps this tactic will serve him well.  We shall see.

As a devout Christian who calls Richmond, Va. home, I will definitely enjoy watching this particular election cycle from afar.

For many people, Mother’s Day is a Greeting Card day, a phone call of a holiday.  For the first time in more than a decade, I was able to be HOME to celebrate Mother’s Day WITH MY MOTHER, Sallie Daniels,  in PERSON.

The weather here in VIrginia’s Capital City was PERFECT– time for a photo of mom in our garden outside our Richmond home.

This is my mom next to hear 2013 garden where the lavender plants match her Mother’s Day outfit. The recent rainy Richmond weather has been a good thing for our garden.

WORSHIP WITH MOM

Today’s worship service gave me an opportunity to see so many mothers  and mother figures at my beloved First African Baptist Church who played a major role in my development as both a child and a young adult.

Courtesy:First African Baptist Church

Before a service of Holy Communion, my home pastor, Dr. Rodney Waller reminded us about “The Philosophy of a Mother’s Faith.”  He based his message on the first five verses of  the fifth chapter of First John.  Because our mother’s faith was instilled in us,  there are  THREE THINGS we as Christians know for sure:

1. If you love Christ, you are a child of God.
2. If you’re a child of God, you ought to love each other  (we’re not in this world alone)
3. If you’re a child of God, you ought to ACT like a child of God living out the commandments of God

While these points weren’t earth-shattering, they certainly were important to place in the context what I believe based on the foundation laid by my mother. No one can put it quite like Dr. Rodney Waller can.

One of my schoolmates from Thomas Jefferson High School, Lynette Archer Brownlee ministered a rendition of Tamela Mann’s “Take Me to the King” and that just topped off a beautiful Mother’s Day Service, a MEMORABLE Mother’s Day Service.

It’s been a few years since my younger brother and I were both here on Mother’s Day and able to sit next to our Aunt Zora Royster in church.

But, this Mother’s Day was not over yet.

GRILL OUT WITH MOM, AUNT, AND FAMILY

With a cool breeze blowing off the lake behind my cousin’s home,  the weather was perfect for grilling out and enjoying a Mother’s Day barbeque with mom and the rest of my family.

PHOTO OP with THE MOTHERS in MY FAMILY– Mom (Sallie Daniels), my cousin Ivette Royster and my aunt Zora Royster

As much as I love the folks back in Alabama,  there is NO PLACE LIKE HOME.

I can’t wait to come back later this summer for more rest and relaxation.

Happy Mother’s Day Mommy!

This is a file photo taken in November 2012 after I completed the Couch to 5K at The University of Alabama.

As we remember those lives lost in the storm and the city continues to recover, I am proud to report something positive happened for me personally on this two-year anniversary.

I walked my SECOND 5K this morning.    For several years, I have been TALKING about doing “The Mayor’s Cup.”   I’ve even registered for it and starting training for it.  But, until this morning, it had never really happened.

Today at 8 a.m. that all changed as I joined about 1400 other neighbors and friends who moved through the streets of downtown Tuscaloosa on the 7th Annual Mayor’s Cup, an event started by Mayor Walt Maddox to help raise funds for our Pre-K Program.

It Started with the Crimson Couch to 5K

This journey to being more active — enough to finish the 3.1 mile route began last fall as I participated in the Crimson Couch to 5K Initiative at The University of Alabama.   For more than two months,  we met on cold mornings and trained for the 5K, which was held in November.

After November, I sustained a stress fracture and landed in a boot.

But, when I came out of boot in January, I vowed that I would walk another 5K.

And it happened today.

Next Goal

As those who are athletes and/or physically fit know, it’s not really about the race, but the fitness-intensive lifestyle that one develops, which makes the difference.
I started out last fall thinking I was going to become a runner.   But, after one training session running through the intramural fields at UA, I knew I could not keep that up, at least not at that point.

Now,  I have the momentum to try running again.   It’s a slow process.  But, I believe I can do it.

Judy Woodward Bates vividly remembers having a desk drawer full of rejection letters from places she attempted to publish her work.

But, from those experiences as a writer, Bates has ascended to mentor other writers, now based on having published three books.

I had the great fortune to sit in on one of her writing sessions this week as she recounted stories from the early days.

She started talking about ways to save money on television and radio segments in the Montgomery media market.  People started calling about her tips that she picked up living frugally and not relying on parents’ money.

“I became a real professional dollar squeezer before I really knew what that was,” Bates recalled.

Her Biblically-based tips on budgeting and spending are detailed in two books, which I hope to obtain copies for myself soon.

The Bargainomics book, which she passed around during her presentation, seems like a good read for any of us looking for an accessible resource that presents Biblical money management wisdom in a way that’s easy-to-understand.

She is careful to remind those at her sessions that she is always looking for ways to share her faith as she shares tips on how to save.   After all, it was God who allowed her to be where she is today, now working on her fourth book.

“God just laid all this out,” Bates said.

As for those of us who want to publish our first books– she has a lot of great suggestions.

“You want to be the author of a well-written, well-put together book not just a book,” Bates said.

She says having three friends who will give you honest feedback on your writing is a must.    Additionally, we have to be willing to let the “baby” in our writing go and open ourselves up to constructive criticism about the way we tell a story and the words we use.

“Nothing can ruin a sentence worse than the wrong word,” she said.  “Use a thesaurus, but don’t rely on the thesaurus.”

Here are a few of her other tips:

• Be wary of personal pet words
• Words are so powerful if we’ll just put them in the right place
• There’s more to good writing than using spell-check
• Read your writing out loud
• Record and listen to your writing the way one would an audio book.

Even before I read her books, Bates has captured my attention on multiple levels as an aspiring book author.

The photo on the left dates back a few years ago when Skeel was the editor of the Society’s membership publication, QUILL Magazine. The photo on the right has been added more recently.

Recently, I noticed that even for the baby-faced executive director, working with the 20+ members of the Board (and a separate Board for the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation) and the nearly 8,000 members of the largest, most broad-based organization for journalists can take its toll, to use a cliche.

Skeel, who became our executive director in 2009,  updated his photo on the SPJ Web site  during the last year and we can see that the years and the stress are showing just a bit.

As one who is proud of the increasing number of gray hairs showing up on my head, I am the first to say — aging gracefully is good.

But, Joe,  don’t let the Society make you grow older before it’s time.

Those in the national media have made fun of President Barack Obama graying during the years of his first term.

I guess once in a while, we have to poke a little fun at ourselves– as journalists  (Joe worked as a journalist before joining the SPJ national staff in 2004) when the age starts to show.

I LOVE THE UPDATED PHOTO JOE!

This is the button I want. Maybe it will happen in March of 2014.

It’s call the Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

The annual commemoration of what became known as “Bloody Sunday” is taking place at this hour in a place not that far from here in Tuscaloosa.

But, as I prepare for a very busy travel week, I had to pass on today’s event.

So, why is it important?

On “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80.   They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma.

This is the Edmund Pettus Bridge where it all happened.

In a mid-day news report, the Rev. Jesse Jackson made the best argument:

According to the Associated Press, Jackson said today the South will see more gerrymandering and more at-large elections if the Supreme Court throws out a requirement for the Justice Department to review election law changes in states with a history of discrimination.

Bloody Sunday got the nation’s attention and set the tone for the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which is believed to be the most effective and successful civil rights legislation in American history.

As NPR and other media reported last week, the Voting Rights Act was upheld five times by the court.

However, as Section 5 is challenged by those here in Alabama  the law now appears to be on life support.

The 2014 commemoration of Bloody Sunday could be very different, if the high court decides to vacate part of the landmark law.

WOODWARD-NOW

Woodward THEN- in the 1970s as a reporter for The Washington Post. Courtesy: http://www.achievement.com

You couldn’t tell it by the standing-room only crowd that came to hear Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward Friday night.

But, dozens of University of Alabama journalism students missed what for me was a once-in-lifetime opportunity:  A Chance to Hear and Meet One of the Greatest Journalists Ever.

Present and Former Fellows of the Blackburn Institute, a leadership program here at University of Alabama, took the front rows at Friday’s lecture by Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward. UA President Judy Bonner and Vice President for Student Affairs Mark Nelson were also in attendance.

I left the outstanding lecture with mixed feelings- EXCITED and ENERGIZED about what we do as journalists, but ANGRY because so many of our journalism students did not show up.   I saw fewer than 20 of the students in our classes here at the University attendance.

We have more than 300 majors in the UA journalism department.

This was such an important event that we invited students from the Society of Professional Journalists from Auburn University and Jacksonville State University to make the more than two-hour drive to Tuscaloosa for the lecture.

Students from Auburn University’s Society of Professional Journalists chapter took a photo with Bob Woodward after his lecture Friday night at University of Alabama.

And, the AU And JSU students both had delegations at the event, which was sponsored by UA’s Blackburn Institute.

We had dozens of high school journalists in town for the Alabama Scholastic Press Association Winter Convention.  But only one or two schools came to hear Bob Woodward, even though we re-arranged the convention schedule to include the 6 p.m. lecture.

Who is Bob Woodward?

Today as I began a 3-hour videojournalism workshop with 15 middle school students from the Birmingham area,  I asked them what they knew about Bob Woodward.

Most were aware of his work connected to the Watergate scandal.  These 6th, 7th and 8th graders could name all the U.S. presidents who Woodward has interviewed and featured in his 17 books.

These students were really sharp.  But,  I wonder how many of my college students are equally as adept in their knowledge of civics?

A matter of memory and relevance

I don’t remember Watergate.  It happened when I was two years old.

I told the middle school group today that the first president I can remember was Jimmy Carter whose inauguration we watched in the cafeteria when I was in 1st grade at Richmond Mary Scott Elementary School.

But, when you talk about why we do journalism, it’s hard not to point to the stellar investigative work of  Seymour Hersh, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and more recently, Brett Blackledge.

Bob Woodward addressed a capacity crowd in Sellers Auditorium at the Bryant Conference Center Friday night. The event was sponsored by University of Alabama’s Blackburn Institute.

As was evident in much of his address last night, Woodward is very much engaged in the policy issues that confront the White House and Congress today.

In fact, in his remarks Friday night,  he referenced his latest writing this weekend about the sequester, the $85 billion in spending cuts set to take effect March 1.

Members of The Crimson White staff had a separate meeting with Bob Woodward on Friday when the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was in town for the Blackburn Institute’s Winter Symposium.

There were a handful of UA journalism students there.  A few of the members staff of the student newspaper,  The Crimson White, had a separate meeting with Woodward earlier on Friday.

What could be more important than hearing and meeting Bob Woodward?

Perhaps it’s a matter of relevance.   Sports figures, pop culture icons and other celebrities are more relevant to today’s students.

If they’re not studying public policy or leadership, should students  be engaged with people like Bob Woodward?

Don Lemon’s talk was the one that provided me, a mid-career journalist who’s now teaching full-time, with some lessons I can apply immediately.

Despite my antics in an earlier post about Mr. Lemon’s name and his book TRANSPARENT,   I think a more serious tone can be taken with the SEVEN takeaways from his visit with my graduate and undergraduate students here at the The University of Alabama this past Thursday.

Don Lemon addressed students in the University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences during a February 21 visit to the Tuscaloosa campus. He also did a campuswide lecture to a standing-room only crowd at the Ferguson Center Theater.

1. You can make it big even if you’re not a good student in college.
Lemon was very frank and open about his story of not being an honors student at either Louisiana State University where took classes in the Manship School of Journalism and Mass Communication or Brooklyn College,  where he eventually finished his degree.

If you consider working on NBC’s “Today Show” or anchoring at CNN “making it big,” then Lemon definitely demonstrates it doesn’t matter where you start, but how you finish.   (And, he’s clearly not finished)

2. You can do a LIVE REPORT from a gay bar in Alabama.

Perhaps the most memorable television news war story was Don Lemon’s account of how he localized the 1997 murder of Italian Fashion Designer Gianni Versace, a virtual unknown to Lemon’s co-workers in the WBRC-TV Fox 6 newsroom, where he worked for 11 months.

Lemon recalled the opening line of his story, which he presented live from a gay bar in the Birmingham area (Versace was openly gay.)

“HIS RUNWAYS STRETCHED FROM EUROPE TO AMERICA, BUT STOPPED AT THE ALABAMA STATE LINE”

Couched in this story was an important lesson about diversity in the television newsroom, a key focus for my Communication and Diversity course.

“You have to be bold.  You cannot be afraid,” Lemon told the University of Alabama students.

His journey from Birmingham to St. Louis to Philadelphia and then to networks of NBC has been filled with opportunities to offer a perspective the newsrooms where he worked lacked.

3. You can be transformed by writing your story.
As he began his talk, Lemon told the students how telling story in his 2011 book, TRANSPARENT,  transformed him.   He’s finding himself doing a lot more speaking engagements like the one he had this week on our campus here in Tuscaloosa.  This reminds me that I need to finish my own first book.

The words “TRANSFORMED BY BEING TRANSPARENT” seem to be applicable here.

4. You can be inspired by Jean West
Apparently I’m not the only one who was inspired to get in broadcast journalism by those who blazed the trail before me.   In college in the early 1990s, I had posters of former NBC Today Show anchor Bryant Gumbel all over the wall of my dorm room.   I wanted to be the next Bryant Gumbel.

For Don Lemon, a former Baton Rouge anchorwoman, who now works in the Louisville television market, Jean West, was his role model.    Today, West is apparently still showing there’s life after two decades as a local television anchor.  She’s producing Jean West’s Medical Digest and Jean West’s Medical Daily via her own company, Faces West Productions.

Since Lemon’s visit on Thursday,  I’m inspired by just reading about her work.

Lemon talked extensively about his television career, including his 11 months working in the Birmingham (Ala) market at WBRC-TV.

5. The journey to “THE TOP” is better than the destination.

“The top is not that exciting,” Lemon said.  “What’s exciting is the journey and you didn’t realize it.”

I couldn’t have said it better.   Actually, those were almost my exact words ten years ago when I gave the student commencement address at the University of Georgia when I completed by Ph.D. degree in mass communication.

But, rather than  my eight-year television news career, I was talking about the three-and-a-half year journey to obtaining a doctoral degree.

I suppose Lemon’s advice applies to any major effort we pursue in life.

It really is the EXPERIENCE going through the process toward our destination or the  journey to our goal that is most rewarding.

6. The path for diverse newsroom perspectives has already been blazed
While noting that racism hasn’t ended, Lemon urged students to not worry about those challenges now, as the stage for diverse newsrooms has already been set.

“You worry about being excellent,” he said.  “Just be excellent.”

7. Reporters still have to cry (and GET ANGRY) sometimes

I have a new case study for the unit I do each summer on “Journalists and Trauma” in my basic news reporting class.

Having been trained in Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and its link to news reporting by reporters and editors who covered the Oklahoma City Bombing, I had not heard of specific cases of trauma for reporters covering the December massacre in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.

Lemon told his story of crying on-air while covering the tragedy in Newtown, CT last year.    He says he’s still going through counseling for PTSD.

But, he also stepped out of the role of “objective” journalist to take his own stand.  His statement about assault weapons has been archived on YouTube.

“I was not a reporter in Newtown,” Lemon told the UA students this week.   I was just  a human being talking to you.”

Depending on how you look at it, only a couple of those descriptors would apply to CNN Anchor Don Lemon, who is making a quick stop on our University of Alabama campus later today.

Don Lemon is weekend evening anchor at CNN.

The native Louisianan is openly gay and he’s a lighter-skinned African American man.   Some might say he’s “high-yellow” and because of his sexual orientation, he’s sweet.

Because he’s so TRANSPARENT, Lemon probably would not be offended by either of those references, neither of which was  meant in a derogatory way.

I purchased his book, appropriately named TRANSPARENT a couple years ago, just days after it was released.

The 220-page memoir has received mixed reviews, but the 19 chapters provided great LESSONS for his readers, especially if you’re an African American working in the broadcast news business as I was for eight years.

Despite all of the media attention surrounding Lemon’s decision to reveal his sexual orientation as he released the book nearly two years ago,   he didn’t talk much about that “coming out” experience in the book.

In the eighth chapter, where he included a section on “Coming to Terms with Myself,”  he provided just as many if not more pertinent lessons about dealing with college professors, some of whom can be more dis-empowering than encouraging.

That’s the kind of lessons I think we’re looking for TODAY here at Alabama.

Looking for Lessons on Persistence, Perseverance 

Don Lemon took classes at both Louisiana State University and Brooklyn College.  He juggled finishing college while launching his journalism career.

Students at UA need to know how he did it.   What strategies were required to be successful in the classroom even as you were making a name for yourself in the newsroom?

Lemon’s first book, TRANSPARENT, was published in 2011 by Farrah Gray Publishing, one of the largest African-American-owned book publishing companies in the country.

Students in my Diversity class here at Alabama were assigned to read Lemon’s opening chapter on “A Lesson in Race and Color.”

In fact, his discussion is a template for UA students on how to tell their own diversity story.

I hope today we’ll get more frank, honest dialogue about race like Lemon provides on his 11 months as a weekend anchor at WBRC- Fox 6 in Birmingham.

Looking for Transparency

In looking for Lemon today, the University of Alabama ought to look for the same transparency this broadcast journalist demonstrated in making news with his own lived experience as he covered a breaking story involving an Atlanta minister accused of sexual misconduct

That Atlanta minister, Bishop Eddie L. Long, was  my pastor during my nearly seven years as a active member of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church while living in Atlanta/Athens, Ga. area.  I still consider him one of my spiritual fathers.  So I was especially interested in all of the interviews and updates in this scandal involving my pastor.

During an 2010 interview, rather than the details on the status of Bishop Long,  what I heard was a very “transparent” Don Lemon disclose on national TV that he was the victim of abuse.    The unusual disclosure is archived on YouTube.

“I probably wouldn’t have addressed the whole issue of my own experience with childhood sexual abuse during the context of the news story, but the accusations against Bishop Eddie Long, and the things the members of his congregation said in his defense, triggered me, ” Lemon wrote.

Looking for Disclosure

As Don Lemon talks to the University of Alabama community tonight at 6 p.m. at the Ferguson Theater,  we’re looking for disclosures that reveal a truly transparent journalist.

More than a decade after anchoring the news here in Alabama, when he probably covered at least one story here in Tuscaloosa,  Don Lemon returns today with a much higher profile.

The timing of the Emmy award-winning author and anchor’s visit could not have been better as the University marks the 50th anniversary of its welcoming its first black students.

As for me, I hope not only to hear a great presentation, but GET my copy of TRANSPARENT autographed.