Mountain Lions, Principles, and Planes

Photo Source: The Daily Camera

The top stories on the front page of the Boulder Daily Camera reflect a variety of purposes from helpfulness to community impact. The primary article reports on a video that was shot in Boulder that has gone viral. The video is of a housecat interacting with a mountain lion. Although the story does not specify how many views the video had at the time the article was written, this was an event that brought Boulder and its relationship with local wildlife to national attention.  There was no opinion presented in this piece.

A second article on the front page presents an interesting series of events involving the principle of a nearby charter school. The principle had come under scrutiny for disallowing the school’s valedictorian from coming out as gay in his speech. He then proceeded to out the young man to his parent’s. The story was reporting on this principle’s recent promotion to assistant superintendent. Those who promoted him praised the principle for educational excellence and wisdom, endorsing his actions as principle of the charter school.

This story is extremely important to the community, and there will likely be citizens that protest the advancement of this principle. Boulder’s community largely values the rights of its citizen’s to express their sexuality freely and without discrimination. While the principle stated that the valedictorian’s coming out as gay would distract from the solemnity of the event, the public may interpret his actions as anti-gay. Those that are in charge of educating the young people in a community have a responsibility to do so in a way that reflects the values of that community. To promote a principle whose actions could be interpreted as discriminatory towards alternative sexualities is likely to draw a variety of opinions from parents, students, other educators, and members of the community. While the opinions of those in the community may be strong, this article is careful not to inject any opinion into its presentation of the events. Any quotes come directly from those involved, and there is no apparent bias in the article.

An article involving a CU-Boulder professor’s plain crash also made the front page of the paper. The story involves a single engine, and had been built from scratch by the professor over the course of 25 years. It was the plane’s first flight, when the engine stopped working for unknown reasons. The professor was unharmed. This story was of interest to some who saw the plane crash from nearby, and was concerned about its pilot. The story is also of interest to Boulder citizens to know whether the airport had been closed down, and to know whether one of its citizens was okay. There is also an interesting human interest angle to this story, given the professor’s active role in the community and his interest in building airplanes, although he is a political science professor. Most people acknowledge the time and effort that the professor must have put into the construction of his plane, and would be sympathetic to its failure given the effort.