The role of The Comment, journalism

In November 2004 my unit was deployed to a small operating base in eastern Afghanistan. My training prepared me for what I was about to encounter: long sleepless nights, rationed food and water, traversing rough mountainous terrain, and staying alive during arduous firefights. What I was not prepared for was the lack of information I could get from outside of my little enclave. There we were, hundreds of Marines with little connection to the world. News magazines, weeks after their publication date, would be quickly scoped up and passed along. Newspapers weren't to be seen. An occasional phone call between week-long missions were 20 precious minutes, most often split between loved ones: 10 minutes for mom and 10 for dad.

As for the Internet, it consisted of waiting in line for an hour to get 20 minutes in which I would check e-mail, respond, and use the remaining time to get a sense of what was happening back home. It was during those six months where I was all but cut off from the world that I realized how important it is to have a connection to life outside of my immediate vicinity.

When I got home, I realized how we take the news media for granted. With multiple daily newspapers, 24-hour cable news networks and ever-increasing Internet news sites it sometimes feels like too much, but when all of that is taken away one can feel detached very quickly.

When I enrolled at Bridgewater State I felt the desire to become part of this thing that I couldn't be without, so I decided to get my feet wet by joining the school newspaper. And ever since then I have felt a strong connection to this campus and I have met many of the people that make this place a community.

As I leave this school it saddens me to think back to my time at The Comment and remember all of the stories and issues we did not cover because we just didn't have the means to. The Comment has historically been a small group of a dozen or so students who work for little or no pay so that the campus can get student generated news. Because of the small staff and lack of regular writers, we have been forced to shelve good stories that may have made an impact on the campus.

It is my hope that someday soon this campus can have a booming newspaper. With the hiring of a full-time journalism professor in the communication department, that may happen. Until then this small group of dedicated students will come through with their task of providing information about this campus to all who pick up an issue of The Comment.

Though most people can't imagine a world without news, I'm fortunate to have lived through it and now realize how vital good journalism is to this country. By picking up copies of The Boston Globe and The New York Times in the cafeterias it's possible to get a sense of issues people are facing all over the world. By picking up an issue of The Comment it's possible to get student-generated and written stories about what is going on around campus. Thomas Jefferson said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

I couldn't agree any more.