This is the reminiscence of one of the most memorable stories I have ever covered. It pains me to say that this was one of the worst moments in someone else's life.

A few weekends ago I watched a beautiful house burn to the ground.

No this is not a joke or a metaphor. It was for real. And luckily it wasn't my house. I didn't even know the people.

I lay out the Rolla Daily News on Sundays (the Monday paper) and that week I was in desperate need of stories to fill up the space.

As I was driving around town looking for a happy-go-lucky picture, like a bunch of kids swinging in the park, I saw a bunch of Rolla Rural Fire Department trucks drive by. Normally I just wonder, but this time, I was looking for news. So I followed a truck down Highway 63 a few blocks and saw tons and tons of black smoke coming from over the tree covered hills. Something was obviously going on, and it looked like a story.

I continued to follow and called the Rolla Police Department on my cell. I identified myself, and asked what was going on. The operator told me that there was a structural fire on County Road 8050. She also mentioned that four separate fire departments were responding.

In this area, it's not at all unusual to have lots of people responding. But four different fire departments working together generally means something big is going on.

I had been down this road before for another story. I was hoping it wasn't the same people I had interviewed before. It wasn't, but that didn't make it any better.

I had never seen a house on fire before. This was unbelievable. It was so horrible, so fascinating, so overwhelming and astonishing, and it left me so speechless. I can't even begin to describe the emotions running through my body.

I took some deep breathes before getting out of the car because I was so overwhelmed. Then I got out and began to walk around, though still saying very little.

I looked for the person in charge. By now I know many of the head people in charge of various things around Rolla. Or, when all else fails, I look for the person with the clipboard watching what's going on. Well, in all honesty, it's not that easy to spot. But you can learn which people aren't in charge and you can narrow it down that way.

There are some people who are so good at not answering questions. Those people are so interesting to me. They don't lie to you like many people would. They don't ignore you like some people do. They give partial answers, and then point out someone else you should go talk to. Those are the people who should be in higher up administrative positions, not the ones who will lie their butts off and assume you will never get it because you are just stupid. I think many of you reading this can think of someone like that, if not here at UMR then somewhere else in your life.

For a long time I just stood and watched. I know I said this before, but I was absolutely speechless. The only words coming out of my mouth were variations of 'oh my God.'

The yard of the house was strewn with children's toys. There was a trampoline, a few bicycles, one of those little yellow and red 'cozy coupe' that was melted to the point of no return, and a few other things.

Questions ran through my mind, but not out my mouth.

It was obvious who the homeowners were. It's so hard to approach someone in that situation, in the heat of the moment. I can talk to people accused of raping their children, people who have shot at robbers, people who have been in car accidents, but talking to someone when we are 10 yards away from their house that is up in flames is a whole different story.

How do you approach something like that?

How are you doing? Your house is burning down, I see.

I don't think so. I am naturally concerned about people, even if I don't know them.

I kept walking around, taking pictures, watching, and most importantly listening. You can learn so much by the things you overhear in a situation. You can hear what one firefighter is saying to another. You can hear what people are talking about on their cell phones, which would be particularly useful if it was the fire victims. In time, you get information that helps you ask somewhat informed questions. I find that it is hard to go into an interview without doing research. In a situation like this, however, it is not always an option. So listening is the next best.

Listening, I learned more than talking. Then I began asking questions. There wasn't much to ask. The obvious questions (Is everyone ok? What started it? Among others,) were answered. Everyone was fine, there were no injuries and the children weren't home. At the end of the day, after the house was practically burnt to the ground, no one knew what caused the fire.

Maybe it was too late when they got there or maybe the building materials contributed to the unbelievably fast blaze. But I know that I don't want to ever live in a house made primarily of cedar. It seemed like nothing the fire fighters did was any help to this house. And, after being there for a few minutes, it was obvious that they were allowing the house to burn, just preventing the surrounding area from catching ablaze.

I can only imagine the heartache and pain of the family, who had stayed and watched the house, and everything in it, burn to the ground.

Tuesday night at the UMR Student Council meeting, it was decided that 1/3 of The Missouri Miner's student funding be cut for the 2007-2008 school year. The reasons ranged from spelling errors to occasional factual error, to just plain not liking The Miner, which should not come into a decision like this. In addition, the entire process for coming to this decision was poor, as these cuts were not discussed at the open forum held so that students could talk about their concerns. And we had 8 minutes, between two people, to defend ourselves against the untruths being spoken at the Student Council meeting.

"We don't want to try and tell you how to run you're paper," the Student Council President said. However, it is hard to see anything else than a student government censor-ship at this point.
In addition, the Student Council President as well as specific members of the Student Activity Fee Board have told us over and over again that paying our writers minimum wage, if anything, is not necessary. While legally, we might not have to because our funding comes from students, there are very few people who would work for less than minimum wage. No one should have to. Currently the editorial board members all put in at least twice the hours they are paid for. We already don't make minimum wage. For the nearly 40 hours a week I put in, I make about $85 each week. No more, no less.

Student Council used an example that MIT does not pay their newspaper (and we are NOT at MIT level, though they can dream). Though the newspaper is my passion, it is not that for everyone, especially at an engineering school where about 95% of our employees are engineers, or science and technology program. Most have this job for a little extra cash in their pockets at the end of the week. And for the amount of work they put in, almost all of them deserve it.

The Missouri Miner feels that we being punished for having in the past, shown campus information that many people did not want out in the public arena (like a good newspaper does). Unfortunately, we do that with spelling or grammatical errors sometimes as well, just as every other newspaper in the world does occasionally. No one is perfect, nor should they be expected to be.

Cutting 1/3 of our student funding will lead to the downfall of the newspaper within a matter of years. One of our current options is going independent of the University. What that would mean is a lot of funding very fast. I don't know how possible that is though.This would cause the university to have no content control over our newspaper. We also fear that such a move will cause other retaliation such as the loss of our student office.

I don't expect everyone to care about UMR's newspaper because in all honesty, many people who read this have very little with it at all. But we are treading in mucky waters which I fear any student funded newspaper or media organization will fall into if they don't tread lightly around student council, administration, etc. No newspaper should have to tiptoe around big stories or leave them out of the newspaper.

They are, by taking away 1/3 of our budget, threatening our freedom of speech. This must not be kept quiet.

Check out this article from the Rolla Daily News about the possibility the Miner’s funding could be cut.

http://therolladailynews.com/articles/2006/11/03/editorials/edit01.txt