Channel 1 - Columbine

Channel ONE News! Does anyone remember the beginnings of this great effort to connect America’s youth? I LOVED Channel ONE News and secretly wanted to go work for them when I graduated, but I didn’t dare tell anyone. I wanted to take the reality of what was going on in our world and expose it to my sheltered classmates who were living under the cloud of MTV Freedom was the true definition of liberation. An extreme rural institution with window unit air conditioners that didn’t always work and a trophy case with relics dating back to the 50s, we took a double take when they mounted in EACH classroom a 13” tube tv so that we could watch this rather modern approach to unification.

And boy did it unify us. Our school was everything modern schools would be aghast over. We had 7th graders in the same building as Seniors. We had lockers in bays where students could hide and do exactly what you think they would. We had a water tower in the back that provided shelter for the smokers during breaks. We had a gym with insulation peeling off that contained asbestos. We had coaches that married students. We had bullies that closed lockers just as you opened them. We had fights in both the boys and girls locker rooms. We had mean girls who wrote on your binder. We rode in the back up pick up trucks to baseball and softball practice because it was off campus. We ran track on the road, not a track, because we didn’t have one. Our mascot was a blue Beelzebub in the heart of the Bible Belt.

However, we had a unity that attracted people to our land and made others detest it in true rival fashion. Our unity was in 10 simple words.

“This is Blue Devil Country.
Love it or Leave it!”

When someone complained about things, we told them they were always free to go. Our unflinching leader would profess this statement to parents and students alike often. It would make us chuckle, especially when it was not us as the recipient of his bodacious speeches. His voice merited two reactions - fight or flight. When we heard it bellowing down the hall, we either ran to what or whom he was addressing for FOMO, OR, we ran from what or whom he was addressing knowing that he was on a tirade and we could easily be harmed in the wake of his warpath.

Mr. Trotter is epic and deserves another post, I daresay book, all to himself. So we revered him highly and waited on his lead for everything. When he allowed his Blue Devil Country to have a peak at the real world with Chanel ONE News, we all found ourselves flabbergasted. It was amazing and eerie all at the same time.

Who talked him into this? Is he going soft? Did some parent pay for all of this? How in the world is this happening?

But whether it was his intention or not, the allowance of our exposure for those short 5 minutes of national and global happenings in the morning were transformative. They awakened us to life outside our walls. They educated us to life outside our small town. They humbled us to life outside our borders. They united us in appreciation for our sheltered and privileged lives and especially for his protective spirit.

It transformed classrooms around our world as it attracted an audience, informed us of news, and encouraged us to think.

On April 21, 1999, Chanel ONE News came on in the classrooms across America with heart-wrenching horror that didn’t just unite one school in the Western United States. It united them all as the pain of the shock of Columbine was the cover story. As students sat next to their classmates listening to how quickly things transpired within the school day of these peers in Colorado, the depth of eternity was heavy. People glanced across the aisle from one another realizing that their classmate is fragile and their time with each other is but a moment. Remorse for unkind words and gestures flooded even the toughest of brutes. Sorrow for the broken who retreat due to fear and pain was felt. Respect surfaced and unity mended.

Though I was in college when this happened, I thought about how my classmates and I would have responded. There was no doubt, we would have congealed into a heap of tears and strength. As I was in the schools working with teachers to prepare for my final year and for student teaching, I saw the pain of piddly cliques cause lines of tension to fade. I saw the power of words be harnessed for good and no longer harm. As painful as this event was in history, I saw it change America in many ways. It gave people a renewed sense of purpose and a renewed sense of responsibility.

Chanel ONE News is simply a media outlet that utilizes the power of words to attract an audience, inform an onlooker, encourage a listener to make a decision to be better. Our words have that exact same power and are used the exact same way. Are you attracting an audience? When are you attracting attention? How are you informing them? Of what are you informing them? Who are you encouraging them to be? Where are you encouraging them to go? And most importantly, why?

Find your motive. If it isn’t to help you or someone else to become better, perhaps your motive is not for an audience at all.