The Rule

In another posting, I lamented the fact that the Catholic Bishops refuse to take a stand publicly on the Colorado Personhood Amendment, which will go before the voters of Colorado on the November 4 ballot as Amendment 48.

The Amendment itself is simple:

Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Colorado:
SECTION 1. Article II of the constitution of the state of Colorado is
amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION to read:
Section 31. Person defined. As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of
Article II of the state constitution, the terms “person” or “persons”
shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization.

This Amendment has far-reaching implications, for SCOTUS Justice Harry Blackmun himself stated in Roe v. Wade,

If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment.

However, at present, the Colorado Catholic Bishops have refused to support the Amendment publicly. By way of the Respect Life Meeting for the Diocese of Colorado Springs, the general consensus is that the Amendment itself is a huge step, which will be fiercely opposed by the likes of Planned Parenthood. Colorado law only allows an Amendment to be on the ballot every so-many years. And since the Bishops and the Colorado Catholic Conference are not confident that the Amendment can pass, they do not want to give their full support (spiritually and financially). The chance of losing the battle and not having a chance to bring it up again for so-many years was too much for them to support at this time (since we don’t have the money to fight it).

Rather, the Respect Life Office sees the [soon-to-fail] Amendment as an opportunity to educate the public about birth control, how it can act as an abortifacient, and how it damages the female body.

The crux of the matter is that the Amendment is on the ballot. All Catholics in the state of Colorado should actively support this proposition, whether through monetary donations, social activism, or ardent prayer.

The entire nation recognizes that Colorado (along with Minnesota and Georgia, who have similar ballot measures) have a unique opportunity to turn the tide in the current battlegrounds for Life.

As a follow up to “News Finds Me“, I present an article in The New Yorker in which the downward trend of traditional print media is followed. Although a bit long-winded (it is The New Yorker, after all) this article again identifies the demise of newspapers.

• The New York Times Company: stock down 54% since 2004
• The McClatchey Company/Knight Ridder: surrendered 80% of its stock
• 25% of all American newspaper jobs have disappeared since 1990

The prediction is that the last newspaper will be chucked onto the last doorstep by 2043. But we have seen these kinds of predictions before. And while I myself tend to have a specific disdain for printed newspapers (messy, ad-ridden, johnny-come-lately), I do not share the dire view of newspapers. Books are increasingly available in electronic format, whether by audiobook or ebook. And yet, libraries are still open, Amazon.com is still king of the hill, and I have a few thousand books on my shelves.

I love books. The weight of one in my hands and the smell of the pages convinces me that I am smarter because of them. Books are truly romantic and real. The power of the printed word is immeasurable.

And so it is for newspapers. Despite my disdain, the smell of the ink on the paper and the weight of the Sunday edition as it lie across my lap provide a real and tangible connection to the world.

Yes, my reasoning smacks more of nostalgia than substantive argument. And this is where I wax of philosophy. Man is corporeal and must ultimately rely on real things in order to be properly formed. And while the Internet, blogs, and other electronic media are definitely here to stay, by his very nature Man needs that which he can possess. A bookmark to the New York Times after 9/11 means nothing compared to having a physical copy of the same newspaper in one’s own possession.

One of the great losses within today’s society is the inability to know what Man is. Sure, we all have ideas of what Man should be or could be. But we must first learn and accept that Man is a corporeal creature, with all of the pitfalls and potential that comes with a full understanding of ‘corporeal creature’. Only after embracing this definition and understanding it can publications like The New Yorker predict what Man will or will not do. Until that time, a man can be paid the big bucks to spew 1,000 words to predict the end of a legacy — but not be called ‘Chicken Little’.

Earlier today, Steve and I were discussing how we get our news. He prefers to go out and get his news, while I want my news to come to me. Case in point, I (currently) have 112 subscriptions in my RSS news reader. I typically read somewhere between 100 and 200 posts per day.  (n.b. “read” is actually “skim”. I only “read” those items for which I have a particular interest). Now before you fly off the handle, Robert Scoble, a technical evangelist for Microsoft, reads about 622 posts each morning.

While focusing primarily on political news, this article in the New York Times finds that

younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter

This is indicative of news in general, not just political news. Where do Catholics go to get news? Most online Catholics would say that they go to popular Weblogs to get news. What they do from there is anyone’s guess. Post it to a blog? Facebook? Discussion Fora? Email? Twitter?

Almost two weeks ago, Steve identified a correlative trend. Big media needs to get in line or get out of the way.

But, here’s the funny thing. Big media could’ve, would’ve, should’ve been on the cutting edge of these trends. Payment, based on page views, of armchair pundits blogging on the official news website would have maintained the Big Media centralization of power. Instead, guys like me do it for free.

Now, Big Media have a few choice left, one of which is:

to focus more on making it easier for people to share and annotate the news, rather than just trying to draw people in to read/watch/listen to the news they have.