I Love Steve Duin

I want to make this a weekly post, because I probably could. But it would be me just linking to Duin articles and gushing over them (which I would love to do, but I also love you, dear reader). Steve Duin is a columnist at the Oregonian and he's one of the few reasons I flirt with actually buying a subscription and thus supporting that downward spiral that is the Oregonian. Duin is a freaking great writer, but more than that, he's one of those journalists with the solid Finley Peter Dunne philosophy - that the job of the journalist is to "comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable." Duin just finds the best stories and writes the heck out of them. To me, there are few like him. He's not a talking head with opinion after opinion, he keeps a steady hand on investigative journalism and yet still keeps his recognizable voice. Plainly, he's on my top five, right next to Dan Barry.

Two of his most recent columns were so extraordinary, I feel as though my blog readers (which is a diverse bunch, I've noticed...and I like it) would benefit from such writing.

This is a link to his story about the Palau Organization's effort to help homeless teens in the Beaverton School Disctrict. A choice quote from the article:

"Mentesana, who coordinates homeless and social support services for the district, assures me that the Palau ministry is offering students a hand, not demanding they take a knee:

"They're not preaching to our community."

Oh, yes, they are. They're preaching about the fundamental mission of the church, which is to love thy neighbors and ease their suffering.

Without saying a word."

CHOICE.

Here's a link to his two part story on the crazy journey of a well-meaning adoption family and a crazy place called Milo Adventist Academy.

Duin is of course a Christian, but he is so well positioned. His stories are not lambastings of people who don't believe what he believes or ridiculous rhetorical tricks that excite just his fan base. Rather, he writes the truth. Gasp. He does what a good journalist does, he reveals truth. And through reading Duin over the years, I've understood good journalism to be one of the most powerful forces in our society. Duin ran stories last year about Roosevelt high school, which have caused the school district to change tons of policies. The ability that the press has to reveal and broadcast the truth of a circumstance is a powerful thing, and I thank Steve Duin for using his abilities to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict me.

Also, the dude rocks the mustache like nobody's business.