Wanted: those whose actions reflect their values.(THE LAST LAUGH)(Column)

Before we get into this, let me confess to being a news junkie, indoctrinated since journalism school 40 years ago that it's my job to know what's happening out there.

Having not renewed my local newspaper subscription, I now glean my news from an odd collection of professional sources via email, plus NPR, occasional newspapers and magazines and office chatter.

Having consumed news from many sources, I then become the gatekeeper and interpreter for the WIHE Newswatch section. Many stories are not really suitable for Newswatch, yet they can teach us that what we do and say can have a powerful effect. And they demonstrate clearly that various forms of power provide the opportunity to put one's values into practical decisions that affect daily life.

The Newswatch section fulfills the last goal in the WIHE mission: "enlighten, encourage, empower and enrage," according to a proofreader. One reader suggested we change the enrage to engage, but after a few months of feeling too domesticated, we went back to wanting to enrage.

From the pile of Newswatch rejections, here are some examples of how different groups are using their various resources to support their beliefs ... or impose their will, depending on whether they agree with you. Or enrage you.

'My Way or No Highway'

Officials at the University of St. Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota, told a pair of heterosexual life partners for 12 years (who had not gone to the altar) they were unwelcome as leaders of a student trip to Australia unless they pretended to occupy separate rooms. Equal opportunity offenders, school officials had earlier refused to let a homosexual faculty member bring along a partner on a choir group trip.