The media is as sturdy as ever. Just ask Owen Brown.
This 19-year-old state faculty scholar made a go to to the NESN studios a number of years in the past and got here away decided to sooner or later cowl baseball — hopefully the Red Sox. It was partly as a result of impression Jim Rice and his broadcast colleagues made.
“Jim Rice and crew showed me there’s an avenue outside of playing baseball,” Owen stated. “I also developed a love of writing.”
Owen credited his mom and grandmother for instilling a resiliency in him that retains him working towards this dream. But it didn’t come simple.
He stated his mom pulled him out of Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, to go to New York City for a mannequin practice present at a botanical backyard. He was in fourth grade and enjoying hooky for a day was simply what good mothers typically do.
When the information broke that 28 youngsters and adults had been murdered that day, Owen’s life modified perpetually. He can nonetheless recall the varsity’s beloved principal, Dawn Hochspring, “in a gold dress” the evening earlier than at a faculty occasion. That’s how he sees her nonetheless in the present day. That principal ran towards the gunfire with just one thought — the protection of her college students.
Owen stated his mother was “sobbing” as she broke the information to him later that day his classmates had been gone. He was bullied in center faculty. Why? Because he survived? He transferred out of Newtown, Conn., to a highschool close by.
Now, this resolute teenager is embarking on a profession as a sports activities journalist.
I met Owen on the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA), my alma mater, to share my trajectory from North Adams and clarify why journalism can by no means die. But I got here away with Owen lifting my spirits.
This affable teen is full of promise. With a lot uncertainty on this world as we climb out of the pandemic, it’s folks like him who assist others keep on the trail.
“I’m not going to be a victim,” he instructed me. “I’m going to make a difference.”
The Herald is embarking on a “Readers’ Corner” initiative to ask subscribers what you need out of your paper. We’ll go to the Berkshires and again to Boston to search out the solutions.
Last week I used to be a visitor at MCLA as a part of a visiting journalist program referred to as the Hardman Lecture Series. My one aim was to share that newspapers — irrespective of how readers decide to have tales delivered — can by no means die.
There are not any simple solutions, so we’re simply going to maintain chasing the information right here on the Herald and ask you sometimes how we’re going.
Owen stated his eye is on the sports activities pages and baseball. We’re a Red Sox city and that’s an excellent place to start out your studying. To quote from W.P. Kinsella’s “Shoeless Joe” novel: “Baseball is the most perfect of games, solid, true, pure and precious as diamonds. If only life were so simple.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”