Rant & Rave
Rant & Rave
More than a paper,
it’s a way of lifeThey're doing what?" That was the question that I had for my parents the other day.
I try to read the Star-Bulletin on-line edition as often as possible while I'm in Colorado for all the local news from the place that I still call home. However, recently I haven't had the time to log onto the Internet to do this. So when my parents asked me what I thought about the Star-Bulletin thing, I replied rather nonchalantly, "What Star-Bulletin thing?"
Then they told me what was going on and it just hit me. You can't just go out and discontinue a major newspaper like that.
As I heard the news, the only thing that I thought was that they can't do that. For as long as I can remember, my family subscribed to the Star-Bulletin and it was and still is my paper of choice.
As I became more sophisticated and actually started reading things other than the comics I realized why I like the Star-Bulletin. It's the news.
Usually, by the time you get the Advertiser, the news that you get is yesterday's and I find that I prefer watching TV in the mornings to see what is going on in the world. Granted, compared to television, the news in the Star-Bulletin is old too, but if I don't watch TV, all of the news in the final edition of the Star-Bulletin is all of that "old news" along with the day's breaking news.
Take, for example, the business world. When the final edition of the Star-Bulletin comes out, the previous day's financial news from Asia is in the paper along with today's financial news from mainland financial centers.
Then there are the comics. I grew up on the comics of the StarBulletin.
If you are a Star-Bulletin guy, you just can't read the comics in the Advertiser. There's no "Garfield," no "Sherman's Lagoon," or "B.C.," the comics that I grew up with. Advertiser comics never seem as funny.
Granted, I am a business major and trying to understand this "realignment of resources" due in part to "corporate strategy" is hard for me to swallow.
For me, the Star-Bulletin is not just a profit-generating newspaper, it is a way of life. I can remember using the comics to wrap the juice for my lunch. Or using the paper to make my school papier-mache art projects. When my mom cut my hair when I was little, she would line the floor with the paper and I would sit there staring at the same ad or the same article for a whole hour.
Then there is one of my ex-girlfriends, whose mom would put interesting articles from the paper in the bathroom next to the toilet so whenever I went over to their house I always looked forward to finding something new to read.
It's the little things like that, which make me sad to think that some big company can just make a decision "based on the future of the company."
I guess that this is a groundbreaking case in the legal world and things are being done to try to stop the closure of the paper. The ramifications are probably greater than things going on in my little world. There are probably millions of dollars at stake and hundreds of jobs on the line. But the one reason that I really don't want to see the closure of the Starbulletin is a rather selfish one.
While I'm stuck up here on the mainland, where am I going to get the news about home and many of things that I truly care about other than on line at starbulletin.com?
Darryl Law is an Iolani graduate who is studying
Travel Industry Management at the University of Denver.
Shutdown announcement
Text of injunction halting shutdown
Text of refusal to lift injunctionRant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature
allowing those 12 to 22 to serve up fresh perspectives.
Speak up by fax at 523-8509; by answering machine at 525-8666;
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