My goals updated

In September 2009, when I became a staff reporter at The View, I was really excited about my new career. I listed several goals and published them in a column in the View.

A few months ago, my son Matthew asked me how many of my goals I had achieved. As I recall, I gave him some mealy-mouthed answer, something like I hadn’t yet won the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. A few days ago, however, my daughter Kelly asked me the same question. When I told my wife Jan about it, she said she had been meaning to ask me the same question.

Are they talking with each other about this? Possibly. But it is a good question, one that bears answering. I’ve listed below the goals that I identified in 2009, 30 months ago, and I’m gonna give myself a Pass/Fail/Incomplete grade on each of them.

· To earn and to retain your trust – Pass. The other day, someone thanked me for accurate reporting. It wasn’t the first time.

· To win a Pulitzer Prize – Incomplete. Hope springs eternal.

· To answer questions you never asked – Incomplete. My “nose for news” has improved, but there is much room for improvement. I do enjoy stepping back from situations and analyzing, however. Examples include whether VBT police officer salaries are competitive with other nearby communities, a detailed look at the blended rate, and so on. Also municipal budgets. I like to do spreadsheets.

· To retire from this at age 75, if that – Incomplete.

· To entertain you – Pass, I think.

· To educate you – Pass. I’m nuts about knowledge, about learning new things, and I like to share.

· To send you to the dictionary every so often – Pass, sort of. I may make you wonder; whether you use the dictionary is up to you. By the way, I now know what the word “penultimate” really means. I misused it in a story a while back. Look it up.

· To ask you, when you think I’m wrong, to call me out – Pass. I’ve noticed about half-a-dozen bad mistakes that I’ve made, including misidentifying someone as the mayor of Ann Arbor. And a real public official once called me obtuse.

· To write in a way that’s easy to read, gets the facts right, and pushes you to think – I try to answer questions that are begged as I re-read the story a third time, and to structure a story that’s coherent. And I will frequently call a source to confirm my understanding of the facts.

· To encourage you to read, and I’m not talking about newspapers here. I’m talking about books - I have no idea. I hope so.

· To figure out how to write concisely, using Twitter and The View blog as learning tools – Pass. I’ve become much better at writing shorter stories. I’m on Facebook (way too often for some of you, I suspect) most every day, and I’ve begun recently to blog once or twice each week. Next step: to attract more blog followers (I have three at the moment, and two are blood relatives), and to “monetize” the blog, that is, to begin to make money on it.

· That, as I describe a story, to bring you right alongside me as it unfolds – Pass. Setting up a scene in my writing is one of my favorite things. I want with my words to bring you into the room with me. A recent example was a sidebar story featuring direct quotes from Van Buren Township elected officials, during an animated discussion.

· My secret next desire is to write a story to describe to you a song and the reasons I like it, using just words – no melody, no song sheet – Pass. My column on my favorite songs while traveling had a crack at that.

· To challenge your thinking - Pass. I like to write about issues as they arise from specific occurrences. Because I think most everything is connected, it’s helpful for me to understand and to try to explain the big picture.

· To analyze a situation when appropriate, not just report it. – Pass. I don’t care for the reporting that throws a figurative grenade into our midst, invites us to puzzle over it, and perhaps get overly excited. I think of it as “civic porn.” Better to ask and answer the questions that are inevitably begged – Is it good or bad? By whose lights? Is there another side to the story? What does it mean? What are the facts? Can both sides of the issue see the truth in what I’ve written? Tough test.

· To inject humor into the situation from time to time - Pass. I still have a 1960’s edge to my humor, and I enjoy laughing. I laughed very hard several times yesterday at something completely inappropriate, but absurdly funny. I’m not great at making others laugh, but I’m in there pitching.

· To acknowledge the value that my “home editor,” my wife Jan, adds to my stories before my real editor sees them – Pass. Jan will read this and provide input on it to me before it’s published. Most anything that’s remotely sensitive I seek out her opinion. She has been, and continues to be invaluable to me, in countless ways.

· To never set out to intentionally hurt someone – Pass, with a caveat. I’ve never set out in my writing to intentionally hurt someone. But I can at times be harsh and use hurtful, chiding words in my blogs on political issues of national consequence. Someone suggested the other day that I tone it down when I began to compare the Obama administration to the beginning of the Nazis in Germany in the early 1930’s. I’ve concluded that if clever phrasemaking or observations stultify dialogue, they should be thought about once or twice before publishing. But my attitude is born of an increasingly serious concern that we’re at risk of losing this beautiful nation and its people that I’ve enjoyed and admired for 60 years. I can’t see it threatened without making a fuss.

· That I am a political conservative and that my writing will sometimes reflect that - Pass.

· To help my editor make The View the newspaper that is commonly referred to when locals talk about local issues - Incomplete. Getting or regaining traction in a community so well-served by so many newspapers is not a short-term task.

· To compete with the other newspapers in an honorable way – Pass. I’m on speaking terms with my competition, and we will help each other on occasion.

· To raise the bar for all local reporting – Incomplete. I’d like to think I have.

· That, as I listen to a UM game in the next room as I compose this, to declare proudly that I am a Notre Dame Football fan, and have been for 25 27 years. But to acknowledge abjectly that Tate Forcier is brilliant, as is the rest of the team, and to admit in advance that Michigan will win the next four national championships with Forcier at the helm. – Fail. Boy, did I miss that one.

Jerry LaVaute is a special writer for Heritage Media. Follow his Pa’s Blog at http://jlavaute.blogspot.com. He can be reached at glavaute@gmail.com or call 1-734-740-0062.