As I tried to half-ass my way through teenage chores like washing my parents’ Cutlass Supreme or raking the rocks that passed for our high-desert yard, my father always reminded me of one essential truth.

“Do everything,” he said, “as if you were putting your name on it.”

I can’t say I came to newspapers solely because of those words; maybe it was just dumb luck that I would find a craft that would allow me, all of us, to have a byline.

All I can tell you for sure is that it’s been an honor to sign my name to this career.

That’s particularly true and poignant at the Rocky: I have been elevated — and certainly inspired — by this staff’s commitment, heart, soul. I cannot say I fully understand the cocktail as deeply as others; in my six months here, I’m barely certain I’ve mastered our computer system.

But I’ve been in journalism for 33 of my 46 years on this planet — long enough to spot pretenders. There are few, if any, here.

I was the editor at The Albuquerque Tribune for five years before coming to the Rocky last July. A lot of that newspaper’s DNA still swims in this one. John Temple worked there. So did Tonia Twichell and Randall Roberts and Lynn Bartels and Lisa Bornstein and Mark Holm and a lot of others. Closing that newspaper after a six-month, twist-in-the-wind, sale-that-wasn’t-a-sale, was the hardest thing I ever did — until Randall asked me to come to a meeting last Dec. 4.

Now, I’m not sure what’s hardest. It’s all hard.

Knowing that, people ask me if I’m sorry that I came, if I wished I’d stayed in Albuquerque, tried a place that was a little more secure.

My answer: Hell, no.

If I stay in Albuquerque, I’m not here for the DNC. I’m not here for Twitter (?). I don’t get to work with pros like Eric Brown and Steve Miller and Kathy Bogan and Dean Krakel and Todd Hartman and John Boogert and too many others to name. I don’t get the chance to put my name on something that, every day, has only one motive: to do right.

I’m glad I worked in the last business in America where you put your name on your work. That’s the difference between journalists and bean-counters. We sign our names. All they do is sign checks.
There’s a difference.