In Fraught, Uncertain Times, Understanding How Important It Is To ‘Pause And Reflect’

I’ve never been great at math. Analyzing a multi-billion-dollar state budget — no problem.  But balancing my checkbook, doing my taxes or understanding calculus? Forget it  In college, I was officially diagnosed with dyslexia and it literally, forgive the pun, added up.

But there was one year, seventh-grade math, when I managed to earn a B grade.  It was in large part due to my teacher, Andy Spees.  He was fond of saying, “Remember: Math, as in life, it’s always good to pause and reflect … pause and reflect.” It brought clarity.

Mr. Spees was dynamic and chill all at once.  Maybe it was his lifelong dedication to mental and physical fitness through wrestling and Tae Kwon Do (he’s a black belt) that gave him his grounded-ness.  Whatever the reason, he was someone who exuded patience, understanding and a quiet confidence that made you believe “you got this.”

As we approach Thanksgiving, I find myself repeating those words from Mr. Spees: “Pause and reflect.”

In doing so, I find myself filled with enormous gratitude to have spent the last two years back in a vocation I love: Radio.

While I majored in broadcasting and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and spent 17 years working part-time for my hometown station WRCO, I made a career working in politics and government. And while doing that, I had the good fortune to interact and get to know so many great journalists in our state. Jeff Seering at The Reedsburg Independent and Erik Olson of The Richland Observer come to mind.  

I’ve known Erik since childhood and like his dad before him, he was owner, editor and publisher of our hometown paper covering everything from city council meetings to the state championships of our high school athletics.

I met Jeff during my time working in state government. When a local paper got purchased by a larger corporation, Jeff set up and started his own publication to have the freedom to continue his deep dives into Sauk County government and politics while also bringing feature stories on organizations in the community.

Then, there was my first-hand experience starting at WRCO in Richland Center at the age of 17. My writing skills, to put it kindly, were not great.  While then-station manager and future owner, Ron Fruit, gave me my shot, it was our news director, Brian Kennedy, who gave me my first lessons in journalism, work ethic and what it meant to be dedicated to local news.  Brian attended every county board meeting (in the afternoons), city council and school board meeting (in the evenings), and still wrote and anchored four newscasts a day, including the local obituaries.

But here’s the kicker that may surprise some folks. It turns out these examples aren’t unique.

Yes, The Richland Observer, The Reedsburg Independent and WRCO are all still going strong, but so too are other great local newspapers and radio stations along with dedicated reporters at larger papers and stations and online publications.

Baseball great and casual philosopher Yogi Berra once said, “You can see a lot just by lookin’ around.”

If we take the time to pause and reflect, to cut through the partisan messaging coming from our toxic politics and some media today, we’ll find a lot of great folks doing really good work to bring us the facts — the truth.

Our owner and CEO at Civic Media, Sage Weil, gave us a north star early on: “Tell the truth and do it with integrity.” That’s why I joined our company. It’s an understandable, direct message I believe in.  If I’m fulfilling that vision and direction, I shouldn’t be overtly or intentionally partisan. We don’t exist to be a communication arm or mouthpiece for any one political party.  Rather, our show “pursues the truth wherever it may lead.”

While Civic is relatively new to the scene, the cool thing is we join a long list of media partners who are already doing great work in providing local and state news to Wisconsin’s citizens.

Kelly Myerhofer at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the staff of the Valley Sentinel locally in Spring Green, have been doing great reporting on the closure of the University of Wisconsin System’s two-year campuses.

Tyler Katzenberger, now with the national publication, Politico, started at The Daily Cardinal with outstanding reporting on campus issues at UW-Madison.  

Knowing I’ll regrettably miss someone, reporters popping into my mind include Jesse Opoien and Molly Beck at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Scott Bauer and Todd Richmond at The Associated Press; Bob Hague at Wisconsin Radio Network; Shawn Johnson at Wisconsin Public Radio; JR Ross at WisPolitics; Matt DeFour and Jack Kelly at Wisconsin Watch; and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area (who is now political editor at Civic Media). These are all journalists I admire.

And how about a shout out to independent local radio stations like WORT in Madison, WVMO in Monona and WDRT in Viroqua.

I make it clear, my daily talk show is just that: News/talk/analysis and hopefully having fun doing it, but I personally apply journalistic ethics to the show.

As we move into a more fractured era of where and how people consume media and information, it’s important to take note of who we can trust to bring us what we consider news and how that shapes politics, discourse and debate.

Despite what some may say, hold fast to the assurance there’s some wonderful folks dedicated only to the agenda of bringing us the facts.  And here’s the key: Apply those facts to your own personal values and that’s where you’ll find the truth.

So this Thanksgiving, I invite you to do what I’m gonna do. Take the advice of Ferris Bueller who famously said, “Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

The key is to take time to “pause and reflect … pause and reflect.”  When we do, it might just all add up.