Great to see classmate and friend Jonathan Katz as cover photo and (classy) centerfold in the new issue of the Medill alumni magazine. If you haven't been following along, Katz won the 2011 Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for his reporting on the Haiti earthquake. Katz was the only U.S. correspondent in the country when the quake hit.
You can read some of his acceptance remarks (speaking with another old friend of this blog, Marcel, author of its '10 classic "Clearly, he's a danger") in The Daily story, and see the full event on YouTube. Seven years ago, Katz and I looked at being roommates in an apartment in Rosslyn. Journalism and I are grateful he decided not to settle down.
Jonathan's reportedly now back in the States for a bit*, but we did get more of his first-person before he left the island. Above, via Vivi, Katz shows the wrecked AP house. Elsewhere, he talked to On the Media.
Related, Katz's dad spoke to DailyFinance, and fellow Daily alum Sam Eifling, who visited Katz last year, wrote about the Haiti reporting in the CJR: "For once, it seems that journalists are bristling on behalf of Haiti, a place usually painted by wariness and fear and resigned pity. Haitians themselves may be getting something like good press, no small development for the most maligned people in the hemisphere."
*If you're not aware of the way things work or you're inclined to hate news media, no, the AP hasn't stopped on Haiti. It's standard to rotate reporters through super-intense, 24/7 news situations, as you would teams of rescue workers, for their care and ability to go long-term.
Update: Was about to publish when I learned friend Sameer had been in Haiti after the quake. Here are two good photos copied from Fb, and the Muslim Media Network has a post about his team's work there.
The Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) said today that it has helped convert the "Bojeux Parc" amusement park in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to a health care facility. The facility is being operated through a partnership between IMANA, Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS) and AIMER Haiti volunteers.
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"On day one, an air hockey table doubled as a procedure table. Now, with our partners, we are providing services from pediatricians, obstetricians, emergency doctors, and surgeons to at least 100 patients a day. We are hoping to arrange equipment that would allow our surgeons to go from performing simple procedures to running a full mobile operating room," said Dr. Sameer Gafoor, a volunteer physician in Port-au-Prince. Gafoor is a cardiologist at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blizzard…
Seeing Bruce's We Shall Overcome on the Haiti telethon, what came to mind was something Jim Musselman had said at the fall's symposium.
As head of Appleseed Recordings, a tiny label with social justice goals, Musselman had prompted Springsteen's folk recordings in the 1990s, including We Shall Overcome. While many of the recordings eventually turned into the Seeger Sessions, the We Shall Overcome cut became a public-facing Sept. 11 song and, as I noted in the fall, a privately wild rights battle. But just as interesting to me was another controversy Musselman explained, about Springsteen's word choice in the song.
Years later, Musselman remembered the concern "darling" stirred. The chorus traditionally went, "Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe we shall overcome some day." Springsteen changed the first line to "Darling, here in my heart." The switch was small in print but huge in meaning.
One of the greatest collective songs of the 20th century had become personal. A civil rights touchstone had become applicable to individual cares and assumed greater and lesser social range. A song that lived in America might now live in your bedroom. Was such a shift decent?
If you don't believe in the power of word choice, you can ignore this blog post. Best I could tell in listening to Musselman, this debate and discussion ensued at the label levels, not in the public. A Google News search found nothing. So, if you don't care, you're in good company.
But I'm going to credit the word choice for the song appearing Friday night and, judging by my feeds, moving many people, myself included. I'm sure, since the line's shift, "Darling, here in my heart" has crossed minds for reasons lower than social change or rescue. Fair enough.
You can pre-order the Hope for Haiti Now telethon music on iTunes.
PETIONVILLE, Haiti (AP) — I was sitting on my bed surfing the Internet when I noticed silence, followed by a weird groaning sound. I figured it was a passing water truck. But funny, I thought — sounds more like an earthquake.
The house started shaking. Then it really started shaking. I walked out of my room and kneeled slowly to the undulating floor, laptop in hand, as windows, two years' worth of Haitian art and a picture of my grandfather smashed around me.
For dozens of ways to give to the relief efforts, colleagues Christie and Glenna have filed into our Kindness community, here and here. Check the reader comments for more options, cautions and encouragement.
Friend Katz, last mentioned here in the blog, is AP's man in Haiti. When you click on Yahoo's lead tonight, you are clicking into his story. When you click on any story about Haiti tonight, his reporting is at the heart.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti "“ The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported bodies in the streets and an aid official described "total disaster and chaos."
Horribly sad for a country that's already suffered so much. You can follow Katz's reporting everywhere but more closely here or here.
