An artistic way of saying thank you
I owe a debt of gratitude to all of you, my forty-four fans, regular readers and others, especially OpEdNews.com Editor-in-Chief Rob Kall. For today I begin a trip from the Midwest to Westfield, New Jersey. I begin a journey because I have been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve The Nation magazine as an intern in New York during the spring of this year.
I do not know if I will be able to continue to publish here, but I certainly intend to continue to publish here throughout the duration of my internship, if that is allowed. The internship position is not a writing position. It will be a position that requires me to do research, fact checking, and other tasks that help ensure a media or press organization stays highly regarded.
I will be a web intern, working as a direct assistant for The Nation magazine's website. Perhaps you've gone there in the past month--Greg Mitchell has been providing live updates on all things WikiLeaks on his blog since WikiLeaks began to release the leaked diplomatic cables. And, John Nichols, Jeremy Scahill, and others regularly post content on their blogs.
A friend who helped me apply for this internship has told me that this internship will afford me the chance to learn how to pitch stories to newspapers and magazines. Gaining web experience will also make it possible for me to get a job so that I might pursue a career that can give me an income to sustain a living.
The collapse in journalism over the past decade has produced a dire situation for this country. Indeed, it is harder to make a living reporting and writing news stories than ever before. The Internet has virtually erased the thought that what people write has any value and should be paid for. More specifically, it has to some extent created this two-tier system of journalism: online material is free while offline material is to be paid for.
There is no telling what this internship will make possible. I admit that I really do not know what I am doing. But, I am not afraid. I have the support of family and friends. And, what I am doing feels right even if there is no guarantee it will give me security in life.
I want to make sure everyone here understands that we each have great potential to make a difference. Sure, someone young like me, who understood when he was nineteen years old to seize the moment, will probably have more shots and opportunities than others. People who aren't just out of college aren't going to get internships. But, that's not the point I am trying to make.
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