A Review of My "Year of Application"

In a practice that--thanks to our ever-increasing reliance on electronic devices--is becoming less frequent, humans switch out their calendars in the annual event of "ringing out the old and ringing in the new" around this time of year. It serves as an opportunity of reflection, introspection and resolve to guide us along our paths in the new year. While I have no wall hanging to change out, I do have this blog to browse through for that same purpose. According to my first post for the year that just ended, 2014 was supposed to be my "year of application" and to spread my journalistic "wings" and, except for the tailing off near the end, I think I can claim success.

In that submission, I talked optimistically about using the skills I acquired through my then-recent completion of my Certificate of Journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the lead-up to being laid off from a job that I held for a little over five years (that was alluded to as a "year of transition").  I initially established a schedule that I would follow for my posting of new content onto this site that was slowly cast aside based upon wavering levels of interest as well as opportunities taken (and ignored) throughout that 12-month period.

Here's a breakdown of my 52 posts last year:

A Missed Opportunity

 

A recent obituary made me reflect upon a rainy Saturday afternoon at Urbana, Ohio's Grimes Field two years ago and the stories I never got around to writing.

Due to the focus of this blog, I rarely share very intimate details of my life for everyone to share; however, I will make a small exception for the purpose of this post. For the past 4-plus months, I have not held a position in my current profession and I have been actively seeking related employment of any sort since the end of January. A discovery yesterday morning during what has become my everyday routine painfully highlighted the greatest shortcoming in my pursuit of a full-time journalistic career--following through on what I start.

BTS: Air Force One Arrival and 2012 Campaign Wrap-Up

[NOTE: this is a long-delayed follow-up for the last Obama event I covered back in October 2012 and a "capstone" for my political reporting for that most recently completed presidential election cycle. Because of the 16-month gap, I am relying upon emails and photos to help dredge up the more intangible recollections of my experiences.]

Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama speaking to a crowd at Dayton, Ohio's Triangle Park at a joint rally on October 23, 2012. (photo courtesy of the Associated Press)

Dayton was extremely fortunate to have both major party tickets bring their nominees to the "Gem City" for joint appearances in the later stages of the general election campaign.  I took an unfortunate pass on the Romney/Ryan dual event at the Dayton International Airport in late September.  That same month, I did cover a Biden rally right down the road from me at Wright State University and an Obama "grassroots event" held in Cincinnati's Eden Park but I was surprised when I received an email on October 19th from the Obama 2012 campaign about a joint appearance at the city's historic Triangle Park on the following Tuesday.  Other than at the national convention in Charlotte, neither candidate had appeared at the same venue at the same time so this was a ready indicator of the importance of Ohio to their reelection chances.

My Personal JFK Reflections

Aaron Shilker's posthumously commissioned official White House portrait of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Up until the tragic events of 9/11, people of my age group (and younger) did not have their own "where were you?" moment like those born before 1957-1958 did when our nation's 35th president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas' Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.  While our nation had experienced similar terrible events in its past (Pearl Harbor, the similar political killings of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, natural disasters like the 1906 Great San Francisco Earthquake), what made the Kennedy murder much more profound was in the way we all learned about it.  News of the Japanese attack on our Hawaiian naval and aviation outposts (and FDR's subsequent declaration of war against Japan) was disseminated via the most modern technology of that time--radio; however, because of its remote location, it took nearly two weeks for some newspapers to get the initial images of the damage and several months later for people to see the devastation in newsreel coverage at their local movie theaters.

BTS: Obama's Stretch Run in Ohio (Part 1 of 2)

[NOTE: this is the first of a two-part installment of my "behind the scenes" observations related to the 2012 presidential campaign.  With the nearly 6-month delay between the events and this posting, I might overlook some of the trivial things I endured but I wanted to finally jot down the main items as well as my reflections on the entire reporting experience.] 

Seasongood Pavillion in Cincinnati's Eden Park being prepared the evening before President Obama's "grassroots event" last September

If you go back to my last "BTS" feature (related to my coverage of Vice President Joe Biden's September 12th "grassroots rally" at Wright State University), you would see that I (finally!) established contact with the Obama campaign's press office and was issued official press credentials to cover that rally as a full-fledged member of the media.  Since they had me on their email notification roster, I was receiving several updates per day on the current, recently completed, and upcoming events scheduled for the president and his running mate.  With Ohio as the biggest "swing state" prize in the November general election, it was only a matter of time before Obama would make his own appearance in the local area, and I received the following advisory just a few short days later:

A/V: President Obama Flies in for Dayton Rally

President Obama greets well-wishers upon his arrival at Dayton International Airport on Tuesday afternoon

VANDALIA, OH -- Fresh off of his final debate performance against Republican challenger Mitt Romney on Monday night and a rally in Florida earlier that morning, President Barack Obama flew to Ohio on Tuesday afternoon for his 17th trip to "the Buckeye State" this year to hold a joint appearance with Vice President Joe Biden at Dayton's Triangle Park.  Air Force One arrived at Wright Brothers Aero, on the grounds of the city airport, at approximately 2:30PM where the president was transferred to a waiting motorcade for the 10-mile drive to the rally venue.  During that short stay at the airport, Obama met with a small private crowd of supporters and Secret Service family members who waited up to three hours for him to arrive.  Biden, who was already campaigning in the state, flew in on Air Force Two from an event in Toledo shortly after Obama departed and was separately shuttled to the park to introduce the president. 

BTS: Obama, Cameron Visit Dayton

(NOTE: it's taken me a while to get this item ready to go online so it lacks the relevancy I originally wanted it to have.  Problems securing an interviewee for a school assignment and other lingering issues prevented me from posting this until today.  I hope it was worth the wait!) 

Air Force One sits on the apron at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio on March 13th.

This is the second time that I've written a 'behind-the-scenes' feature and you might be wondering to yourself--where is the ORIGINAL post?  For the Santorum and Romney events earlier this month, I posted the stories first before I wrote up a summary of my personal experiences about the coverage.  I was hoping to do the same thing this time around but, if I can borrow a phrase from Broadway, "a funny thing happened on the way to the tarmac" and the 'BTS' postlude, in this instance, became the story.