I know this is kind of long for a blog, but I thought I'd share this column I wrote with you online folks.

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I didn’t grow up in a newspaper family, but rather I grew up in a family that read newspapers.

What I mean by that is no one in my family had ever worked in newspapers before me. In fact, in my family, my generation was the first to speak English as a primary language. My uncle remembers his grade-school teachers sending notes home with him telling my grandparents to speak English at home so he could learn English and become a better student.

But, every person in my family loved or loves reading newspapers. I can trace that love of newspapers (and reading, really) directly back to my Mother, who was a connoisseur of all things words. The love of reading newspapers is a tradition I try to instill in my son still today.

First, a little history: In my hometown of Denver, two newspapers battled it out for supremacy. One, the Rocky Mountain News, a tabloid, was my family’s paper of choice. My Mother, God bless her soul, used to tell me she liked how easy the smaller paper was to read. To this day, I’m still biased toward the Rocky, as are my brothers, who still read that paper every day.

But there was conflict. You see, my first job was delivering the “other” paper, The Denver Post. The Post at that time was an afternoon paper. So I delivered it, on my bicycle, after school and still had time to do my other activities, such as playing sports and what not.

The two newspapers still exist today, albeit under a joint operating agreement. Their highly covered circulation battle in the late ’90s and early this decade almost destroyed them both. At one point, you could buy a year’s subscription for about $3. I had both papers delivered to my house for less than $7 for a year. Crazy!

As I said, growing up at my house in South Denver, the newspaper of choice was the Rocky Mountain News. My Mother, a single parent, would read it every day. I can remember reading a newspaper, literally, before I ever read books. I used to read the comics every day with my Mother. I was about 4.

In my house, if you didn’t play sports, you just didn’t fit in. I had three older brothers and an older sister who were top athletes. I was not only expected to play sports, but also to excel at them.

I tried to excel at sports, really, with some success, but I also read about them -- in the newspaper. Of course, I remember pouring over the Rocky’s sports sections, learning everything I could about my beloved Broncos and Nuggets. Back then, Denver didn’t have a Major League Baseball team, but we had the lovable Denver Bears, a AAA team from the American Association. I couldn’t get enough information about the local teams.

I thought every 8-year-old kid read the sports section and memorized all the players’ and teams’ stats. Actually, my brother still kids me about memorizing those stats. Even today, he’ll ask me random questions, like who was the home run leader for the 1980 Denver Bears, one of the greatest minor league teams ever. (The answer is Randy Bass, who had 37 dingers and 143 RBI. Bass never made a splash in the Majors, but he did enjoy success playing in Japan.)

In 1977, Denver’s passion was the Broncos. And the newspaper couldn’t write enough about them. Of course, as a young reader, I couldn’t read enough about them, either. Even if they did lose Super Bowl XII 27-10 in early 1978 to the hated Dallas Cowboys!

Eventually, my love of sports and newspapers merged when I was sports editor at two different newspapers. Fun stuff.

Of course, newspapers are about more than comics and sports.

I learned about the world, health, business, state and politics. (One of my first lessons in politics was when Denver/Colorado basically turned down the 1976 Winter Olympics over concerns about the environment and failure to pass a multi-million dollar bond. I think we are the only city/state EVER to turn down the Olympics.)

I never took debate class in high school, but I knew what good debate was because I read the opinion page of the newspaper almost every day.

I wasn’t an arts and entertainment geek, but I stayed current on new bands and local clubs and Hollywood trends through my newspaper.

Yes, a newspaper is educational on so many levels.

One of my roommates in college thought I was crazy because I subscribed to three different papers -- and that I read them all. He thought the time I spent reading papers would be better spent, say, drinking beer and eating pizza -- or even going to class. Snoopy, Dear Abby and Ann Landers were too interesting to me for that other stuff to really matter.

So it wasn’t a big surprise to me, then, that my love of newspapers would eventually become a career for me. I started in the business at my college newspaper and never looked back.

Here, now in Victoria, I am part of a great team of journalists and other dedicated professionals who are committed to bringing you the best product every day. We tell the stories -- the tragedies, the heroics, the ordinary -- that make up our community. We care about our community, and we work tirelessly to make it better through our newspaper.

Eevery day, we get to start with a blank canvas and do it all again. That’s one of the many things I love about newspapers.

And somewhere up there my Mother is smiling down on me -- with the latest newspaper in her hand.

The recent debate online about our decision to run a Gay pride story on the front page of the newspaper conjured up some memories for me.
The newspaper industry used to celebrate a week every year in May called Time out for Diversity and Accuracy. The project's goal  was to get newspapers thinking and focusing on diversity. Participating newspapers performed projects and reported back.
One year, I solicited volunteers at my Colorado newspaper to do a project. Our goal was simple: To do something that would take us out of our comfort zones and then write a first-person account on the experience. I chose to spend a night at a gay bar. A couple of people spent time in the local jail. One went to church for the first time in many years. Current Advocate editor, Chris Cobler, then the editor of our Colorado paper, waited tables at a restaurant for the first time in his life.
But back to the gay bar ....
I must admit, I didn't go by myself. I coerced another co-worker to go with me. The experience definitely took me out of my comfort zone. I had preconceived notions that ultimately proved false. Basically, everyone was pretty cool.
And that brings us back to point on the Gay pride festival. I'd challenge those people who squirm at the idea to take themselves out of their comfort zone and attend the festival.
You just never know what you might learn.

Sometimes in the news business, we get to be part of something cool and special, not just the negativity that seems to overwhelm us most days.
We were part of something special this past week with the Chris Cagle story. If you haven't heard about it or read it, you can do check out the video, story and photos here.
Sometimes a story lives up to its hype, and this one certainly did. As we prepared for the story during the course of the week, the thought did cross our minds that maybe this was too good to be true.
But Cagle, the country music star, delivered when he took Victoria 17-year-old Danielle Corder to her prom on Saturday night, giving her a night she'll never forget.
And sometimes, we in the news business get to deliver to our audience good-hearted stories we soon won't forget either.

A couple of days ago, we ran a story in the Advocate about rival girl gangs in Calhoun County. Police arrested members of one of the gangs, a mother and grandmother when things escalated.
A reader posted a comment to that story about zero tolerance at schools, and how maybe zero tolerance has hampered educators in their dealings with some students.
That reader's post was interesting and well thought out. Though I'm not sure I agree with it, it did get me thinking about zero tolerance.
I was working at a newspaper in Colorado when the Columbine shootings happened. Eric Harris and his sissy friend Dylan Klebold gunned down 12 students and one teacher and wounded 22 others before killing themselves. Cowards.
Anyway, a lot of the current zero tolerance policies were born out of the Columbine shootings.
Does it always work. No, but nothing's 100 percent. A few years back, a newspaper I worked at told the story of a young kid who got expelled because he had a plastic knife in his backpack. If I remember correctly, he had mistakingly put the plastic knife in his lunch sack.
That expulsion definitely didn't fit the crime.
But zero tolerance probably does more good than harm.
In the case of Calhoun County, it probably worked because a heated exchange between gangs -- even wannabe gangs -- could have easily escalated into an out-of-control chaos that hurt other students or teachers.
What's your take on zero tolerance? Please comment here or click the link above and comment on the original story.
Thanks for reading.

When I moved down to Texas, I really hoped the legal driving age would be 18. Of course, as you know, it isn't.
But as my son approaches 16, I worry more and more about it and whether I should let him get a driver's license. When I lived in Greeley, CO.,  Weld County consistently led the state in the number of highway fatalities every year. Many of those deaths were teen drivers. Seeing first hand the impacts of those deaths in the stories we reported and wrote was gut wrenching.
Stories like the one we published today don't help, either. We ran a AP story and a local side bar about how car crashes are the leading cause of death for tweens and teens.
Boy, how I wish the legal driving age was 18. I think those extra two years are huge in regards to how much more kids mature and develop. I remember back to the my early driving days. I realize now I wasn't ready to handle the responsibility of driving. I actually earned a speeding ticket the first day I ever drove alone without an adult.
I know there are some kids out there who can handle it. But the truth is, at least in my opinion, most aren't ready.
As a parent, I can make my son wait those two extra years. Will I? I don't know, but it's a conversation worth having.
What do you think? Click on the link above and post your thoughts, or post them here.
Thanks.