News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 49

FAITH Faith can help through challenge E8 SECTION SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2004 1 THE NEWS-PRESS DAN WARNER PERSONALLY YOURS djwarner2yahoo.com 144 A. I Tests only show part of picture SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-PRESS Director Bill Ward in the WINK production control room the day Hurricane Charley hit Southwest Florida. Local media rise to occasion when Charley hits BY CHRIS WADSWORTH People are complex and fully capable of changing Since humans left the caves, we have been asking: Who am It is called introspectioa In case you've wondered, here's who I am: Very confident, self-assured, a self starter, creative, resourceful, competitive and blessed with an inquiring mind. I like to do things my way, and will accept the consequences. I am full of energy.

I take risks and accept the blame for any mistakes they cause. All that makes me authoritative. I like variety, am impatient, have a perpetual sense of urgency and get bored with the routine. At the same time, I am reserved, serious, analytical and think in terms of concepts rather than details. I get along well with people who I perceive to be like me, and it takes me awhile to open up to people who aren't like me.

I need to be more accommodating, agreeable, social, outgoing and friendly. And I need to develop patience. The needs are my assessment of myself. It is, thus, impossible for me to threaten, "no more Mr. Nice Guy," because I never was a nice guy.

How do I know all of this? A little shrink told me so. He was a psychologist hired by the newspaper I edited in 1987 to give us a profile not only of our present staff, but also of job applicants. The assessment was the result of a written test. It was a good te6t; one we foundip be remarkably accurate. It showed example, why some reporters had trouble getting the story; they were shy.

Or why some editors missed obvious errors; they didn't like detail. We didn't use the test to hire or fire people. It merely gave us fodder for discussion. We were quite careful about how we used the test because, quite obviously, this exercise could open up all sorts of opportunities for abuse. Labeling people is always dangerous, as racial strife, clan wars, ethnic cleansing, religious bias and neighborhood feuds have demonstrated over the centuries.

As time went on, we discovered that all of us put under the psychological spotlight more to us than the test showed we were steeped in contradictions, nuance, multiple layers of personality and environmental influences, mostly those involving how we interacted with and loved ones. Most of all, though, we found that the test grabbed only a snapshot of the moment. We all changed as time went on, as we matured and as we learned which we do constantly the consequences of our behavior. I like to expose the world's big lies now and again, and the concept that people can't change is one of the world's biggest lies. Give yourself a challenge, change and see how you grow.

That's the real test. att Cutler is a self-described "freak" whn it comes to the? weather, especially severe weather. He Lj if 5 1 1 iLl.llilWliliMI "Li I I MARC BEAUDIN THE NEWS-PRESS NBC2 reporter David Sutta and photographer Chris Cruz when Hurricane Charley's winds picked up on Fort Myers Beach. story. It's part of the competitiveness of journalism.

But in a real crisis, business concerns areput aside. "We don't have discussions about making money right now," said Darrel Adams, news director for NBC2 and ABC7 in Fort Myers. "We have discussions about keeping the community informed and helping them get back to their day-to-day life." NBC2 and ABC7, both operated by Waterman Broadcasting, took the unusual step of melding the two stations and news teams during Charley coverage. Viewers flipping to either channel saw the same broadcast, with anchors from both stations snaring the NBC2 studio. "By having that number of we are able to gather that much more information, that many more images and get it on the air," Adams said.

Many local stations went to "wall-to-wall" coverage, dumping syndicated programming and network shows so local news could continue all day, and sometimes all night "This staff has been incredible," said John Rinkenbaugh, an executive news producer at WINK-TV While the station's news team kept the ball rolling, long-time WINK anchors Jim McLaughlin and Lois Thome staffed the anchor desk hour after hour. It was a grueling marathon. "This is what they see their job as to be the (information) conduit for the community," Rinkenbaugh said. "I'll go to war with those guys See MEDIA E6 tracks storm fronts and squall lines and lightning strikes like an amateur meteorologist "I'm grabbing up newspapers and watching television," said Cutler, a 28-year-old youth minister at San Carlos Christian Church. "I like to know every bit of information that I can possibly know." Cuder had his hands full these past few weeks, with Hurricane Charley roaring ashore in Southwest Florida.

Local media outlets provided heavy coverage before, during and after the storm This included the usual television, radio, newspapers as well as a relative newbie to disaster coverage the Internet "I could get on (the computer) and constantly watch where it was going," said Cutler, who stayed online much of the night before the storm "I was able to watch it go over Jamaica and Cuba." Cutler and coundess others watched Charley all the way up the coast and into their world. TELEVISION RADIO When disaster strikes, media outlets go into overdrive. Every television station and newspaper in a community wants to "own" the big Coverage from i i mmmmlmmmmmmmmmmmmiiaam. Bracelet craze has believers seeing red you think she's not serious hVmi4' it irs11 romin A tAii BY HEATHER SVOKOS Knight Ridder News Service I I These days, you can't choke a I -1 -1 i that she did adopt the Hebrew name Esther.) The bracelet is i said to ward off He asks: "Why can we be saints everywhere else, but act like the chief of sinners at home?" Stanton calls his readers to admit that we all struggle with "being a jerk" to our families. "The Christian Culture Survival Guide: The Misadventures of an Outsider on the Inside," by Matthew Paul Turner (Relevant Books, 151 pages, $10.99) The Good Book calls believers a "peculiar people" and Turner reckons he's seen it all.

Sword drills. Hallelujah hand raisers. Five-minute sermon prayers. Anti-Halloween hayrides. Hosanna flags.

Secular CD roasts. Born-again virgins. Marathon altar calls. Baptismal hanky panky.WWJD bracelets. LITERARY SPIRIT BOOKS "My Crazy Imperfect Christian Family: Living out Your Faith with Those Who Know You Best," by Glenn T.

Stanton (Navpress, 221 pages, $12.99) The quirky cover grabs your attention a faux family portrait with plastered smiles except for Junior, whose finger, is up his nose. But the acknowledgement to the president of the G.K. Chesterton Society intrigues. Could this possibly be an honest poke-fun-at-ourselves and yet thought-provoking book on the Christian home? The answer is yes. Stanton delivers with candid chapters of a Christian Family," "Enemies of a Christian Family," "Why Do We Hurt the Ones We as well as frequent quotes from the likes of Francis Schaeffer, Pope John Paul II and C.S.

Lewis. ceieuruy wiuiuui seemg one in those red string kabbalah jp' bracelets. Madonna was first to usher it into the t. mainstream, because u.j i the evil eye and bring good luck to its wearers. And now, because all Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore and a gal who readily comes to mind when we think of ancient Jewish mysticism: Paris Hilton.

The "Red String Package" even briefly appeared on Target's Web site as a "hot buy" a sign that the accessory has become so hip that it's in danger of becoming oh-so-five-seconds ago. But when it mysteriously disappeared from the site, a gossip Web site called Defamer claimed the bracelets were removed after Target received a customer complaint (not See BRACELETS E4 Also see about Kabbalah E4 IVldUUlilld is cuwciys first. She wears the slender red string, also stars must follow their leader, there are a slew of called a bendel, as part of her self-professed devotion to the study of new hipster passengers on the kabbalah, an ancient form bracelet bandwagon: of Jewish mysticism. (Lest Knight Ridder News Service iDlt; slhw Sv wswaBL I.