Inside the editorial page
Inside the editorial page

This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.

Editorial board bloggers

Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com

Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.

Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.

Guest bloggers

Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.

Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.

Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.

Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.

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What's on the minds of Tacoma News Tribune editorial writers
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 12:07:14 pm

On July 20, 1969, American families huddled around the TV set (most of us only had one back then) to watch the lunar landing. We held our collective breath as the astronauts looked for a good place to land the Eagle.

I remember thinking, "What if they land on the edge of a crater and go tumbling down? They won't be able to leave the moon."

I was 16 and babysitting that summer night for the Schulwolf family in Norfolk, Va. The children were already in bed, so I sat all alone in a dark living room watching the events unfold on TV.

I called home to talk to my mom just after the landing. It was an experience that we all wanted to share.

Do you have an interesting story about what you were doing for the moon landing? Leave a comment.

Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 11:23:02 am

This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

40 years later, sense of awe remains

“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” – Astronaut Neil Armstrong from the moon, July 20, 1969

For Americans who are middle-aged or older, the events of July 1969 – when man went to the moon and came back – are the stuff of vivid memory.

Just as we know where we were when we heard that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, we remember where we were 40 years ago today as we watched Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong climb down the ladder from the Eagle lunar lander and leave man’s first footprint on another heavenly body.

That summer evening, most Americans were transfixed by their TV screens. In cities around the world, crowds gathered to watch as Eagle touched down, and Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin emerged to walk on the moon’s surface in ghostly images transmitted through space.

We – all of mankind, as Armstrong noted upon stepping onto lunar soil – had taken a giant leap forward. Kennedy’s 1961 challenge of putting a man on the moon within the decade had been met.

=> Read more!

Categories: What's coming