The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 27

yy nyyirtr rwTiTiryiffri)iii 'yr sy yy i fittyi' Page B7 Sunday, November 14, 1939 The Spokesman-Review Spokane, Wash Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Too far In street level, Jeanette Faulkner says the GOP has strayed too tar from the right B9 Questions or comments on these issues? Call managing editor Scott Sines (509) 459 5405, Fax (509) 459-5482 Top-25 rankings ojv a reward for both GU and the S-R, Chris Peck unites. Hard work in Spokane turns heads I -)f I The Spokesman-Review basketball and newspapers, Spokane has hit the top 25. This week, the Gonzaga Bulldogs are ranked No. 24 out of 319 Division I mens basketball teams, according to a preseason vote by the nations sports writers. In the same week, the November-December issue of Columbia Journalism Review magazine ranked The Spokesman-Review the 23rd-bcst newspaper in the country after a vote by the nations top editors.

There are 1,509 newspapers in the United States. For most of Spokane, the Gonzaga basketball rankings surely will be the source of greater pride. Bragging rights will be assigned to the team. Fond recollections will bubble up from last seasons run to the Elite Eight in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. A T-shirt or two will be sold.

As for the ranking of The Spokesman-Review, were realists here. Lets just say were not holding our breath for a big bouquet of roses from politicians or other people who equate journalists with lower forms of pond life. No T-shirts are on order. In basketball, its easy to love a winning team. In newspapers, grudging respect might be the best to hope for.

Still, a trip inside Gonzagas sports department and into The Spokesman-Reviews newsroom would likely reveal some parallel thoughts and observations this week about suddenly being ranked among the best. You know rankings can be fickle. You know rankings make you a big, fat target.1 You know rankings by people who know the game you play matter most to others who play that game. But there is also an appreciation in any organization that suddenly gets recognized, of the hard work that has been done before the rankings came out. National recognition for a team or business in a city that most people cant even pronounce suggests the groundwork was being tilled long before anybody noticed.

At the newspaper this surely is the case. Nearly 20 years ago, Publisher Bill Cowles laid out the goal of having the family-owned newspaper strive to be the best paper of its size in the countiy. At Gonzaga, former head coaches Jay Dan Fitzgerald and Dan Monson paved the way for this weeks lofty rankings. Over the past 20 years at Gonzaga, the mens basketball team has finished under .500 only twice. To labor long and hard in Spokane, which is thousands of miles from the center of American sports and media, and finally be recognized is particularly sweet.

Gonzaga, after all, has a lower enrollment of any of the teams ranked above it. Purdue, the No. 23 team, has an enrollment of in West Lafayette, and 65,000 overall. Gonzaga hopes to enroll 4,500 after counting every warm body and part-timer. Similarly, The Spokesman-Review has a lower circulation than any of the newspapers ranked above it.

No. 22 was the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, circulation 296,500, or more than twice the circulation of this newspaper. Spokane has a record of outperforming other cities that are better known. I In 1995, Spokane was ranked a top-10 city for outdoor activities, according to Outside magainc. Readers Digest called Spokane the eighth-best place to raise a family in 1997.

Spokane was the 21 st-best place for small business, according to Entrepreneur magazine in 1998. The city hit No. 34 on the list of the 50 hottest cities for attracting expanding businesses, 1 according to Expansion Management this year. i i if it Hi. i a u'tt ill Many experts say the children of baby boomers are our best hope for the future.

But what do we really know about Generation What do they value most in life? Music, particularly musicians such as Jewel, Sync and Dave Matthews, rate high in their lives, as do beautiful and peaceful places. By Scott Sines Managing Editor By Rebecca Nappi Interactive Editor i vt ru Ji.ri "I '1 I I They are there for you. Connection was the underlying value. Isolation is a big issue for teens. Friends, they said, help them fight the feelings of loneliness that can overwhelm them at times.

The places: Almost all chose places of beauty and quiet Manito Park, Priest Lake, the parks in British Columbia, ski mountains, the view from I tigh Drive on Spokane South I fill, and my back yard. They took along places of fun and diversion, such as Silvcrwood Theme Park and NorthTown Mall. And they included places of knowledge The Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution and other museums. The underlying values? They have a deep concern with aesthetics; beauty is important to them. And they didnt want to be bored on the planet.

Learning and fun seemed to take care of those concerns. The things: Evcty list included music. They need their CDs, guitars, pianos. Music is a form of communication, creative expression and an important part of identifying themselves to each other and to adults. Nostalgia items and objects that connect them to their families stood out on each list.

One girl would pack her blankic," another a treasured stuffed turtle. Photo and memory albums were also must-take items. They said the underlying value there was, again, connection. To their roots, to family. As one teen summarized: The past creates who you arc tomorrow.

The nostalgia items surprised us. As teens, most baby boomers wc knew wanted nothing more than to distance themselves from family. But Generation Is a generation of surprises, Stay tuned. II he planet didnt have a I I name, but we told the II 15 teens they would be sent to it soon. They LJ could take with them their entire family, plus three additional individuals, three places and three things.

We wanted to uncover the values of the Generation group we gathered at The Spokesman-Review two weeks ago. But discussions about values with any group can languish in the abstract. We wanted to get down to basics. And the teens delivered. Research on Gen shows that they arent afraid to speak up, ask questions, state their opinions.

It's a generalization, of course, but this group didnt disappoint. The teens most arc involved with the newspapers Our Generation page ranged in age from 14 to 17 and represented a mix of Inland Northwest schools. They werent shy about questioning the questions. Can we lake pels? Is God already there? Do the people have to be alive? Can we bring an entire city? The whole planet? Yes to pets, God, dead people and entire cities, hut no to toting all of Planet Earth to their new home. The people: They were ullowcd to take their entire extended family.

And all said they would. They also all included friends, mostly best friends, on their lists of the three individuals they'd pick to accompany them to the new planet. A few mentioned Coaches and teachers; others threw in musicians Dave Matthews, Jewel, Sync. Einstein, Ben Franklin, Edgar Allen Ioc and Bob Marley, a deceased reggae musician, also made the trip. They wanted friends along to talk with, to listen, to lean on.

1 hey arc a pillar," the teens said. Demographer Hazel Reinhardt of Northwestern University says Generation is our best hope for the future. The daughters and sons of baby boomers, Generation includes those from ages 4 to 22. Reinhardts studies show that this group likes to read, and they are earnest. They have a peculiar sense of humor, but they are not afraid of responsibility.

And they care about the environment. When I was a teenager, my parents used to look at me and say, We just dont understand you. They didnt understand the value of songs such as Why Dont We Do It In The Road by The Beatles. To them it sounded like noise, and they referred to it condescendingly as yeah-yeah-yeah music. And they were great parents.

They made sure my brother and I got good grades, led a healthy social life and went to college. They were concerned about the length of our hair, the volume of our music and.whcthcr we were taking drugs. We knew that they loved us even though we drove them crazy at times. But my parents, like my friends parents, never asked us why we were so defiant in asserting our independence. Or, what we found valuable in the ycah-ycah-yeah music; or in the relationships we built with our friends.

There was a link missing between the loving parents and rebellious kids of the 60s and 70s. Some headline writer called it the Generation Gap and the name stuck. It was overanalyzed by the great minds of the time but I havent heard that phrase used in years. Now we have a promising new generation coming along. But what do we really know about them? And how do we keep from falling into the Generation Gap again? Today's Perspective page presents the first report in a yearlong effort to better understand Generation Y.

Editors at the newspaper have held several informal exchanges with Ocn types over the past few months. Ttoo weeks ago, wc had our first formal meeting with a group who will guide us through the year. The group is engaging, serious and funny. They talk openly about the things they value and what issues arc important to them. They arc articulate and can be disconcertingly direct.

They are very much like the boomers who arc their parents, yet very different in some of things they value. We plan to find out more about these promising young people, and we promise to share it with you in the coming year. 1 r4 Last month, Money magazine ranked Snokane the fourth-best city in the West for favoranle business climate, 24th for affordable housing. Rankings arent the same as science. They dont account for the mistakes we make tomorrow.

They can't make up for lazinevs. and they tumble beneath excessive pride. But they have a value if they provide some perspective on the place where you live, work and play. When you live someplace, the strengths and successes of the hometown effort aren't always visible. If they do anything important, outside rankings make more visible that which wc take for granted.

And if you are ranked? Well, you want to prove the outsiders were right. You want to apply your talents, work hard and cut down on the mistakes. At least that's the way wc look at it here at The Spokesman-Review. Chris Peck Is editor ol The Spokesman-Review. His column appears Sundays on Perspective.

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