With 50 golden-tipped candles and party hats for all, Unbound proudly celebrates a half century of existence.
Not the on-line magazine, mind you. The World Wide Web's own version is still in the stage of bronzed shoes and pin-the-tail-on-the- donkey. Instead, this golden-anniversary celebration is for Unbound, the way of life. In Ebbets Field, a haven for many of baseball's most solemn traditions, the summer of 1947 was anything but ordinary. You see, that was the year that the Brooklyn Dodgers took the field with only eight white men. The ninth player, or the first player if you will, was Jackie Robinson, a man who defined the word unbound with a courageous combination of grit and tolerance. "Hey boy, how about a shoeshine?" His fellow major leaguers accepted Robinson as most people would accept cancer. Most hated him because he was different, because he represented change in a system that seemed to be fine. Seemed, that is, from the inside. "If you come to the park today, you will be shot." Retaliation was not an option. Warnings weren't for black people -- under the overwhelming magnifying glass of a racist society, one mistake would cost Robinson his spot in baseball -- or more. He knew that. Whether or not he knew that one mistake would have cost America itself is another story. Minorities were bound by the restrictions of all forms of society, not just baseball, in the 1940s. To this day, they still do not share all of the privileges as are enjoyed by Caucasians. The same can be said for women, homosexuals, handicapped people, etc. The chains forged by bigotry will forever be the most powerful forms of restraint. These chains, however, can be broken by strength of character. Robinson won many of his critics over by demonstrating this in the face of hatred. Like Mary McLeod Bethune, Charles Drew, Ralphe Bunche and other barrier breakers of his generation, Robinson demonstrated the power of vision, discipline and self-affirmation. He became Unbound, and in so doing, challenged us all. Fifty years later, the students that have collaborated in piecing together a volunteer on-line magazine are attempting to carry on that legacy. The mass media, for all of the criticisms it has received in recent times, still remains the public's vehicle on the freeway of knowledge. A responsible media acts as an educator of society. Those that hated Robinson when he first entered the major leagues, including the Hall of Fame broadcaster Red Barber, did so without hearing, seeing or knowing anything about the man except that of his skin color. The media did not portray an image of him; instead, it simply showed the truth -- the truth about a man who loved the game of baseball and who played it with the type of reckless abandon that fans have forever appreciated. The purpose of the media is to relay information, not to create it. During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, journalists didn't attempt to boost their own ratings with the scandalous stories that litter today's front pages. They reported the messages of leaders so that America itself could judge what was right. The media demonstrated professionalism and, in turn, nobility by simply allowing facts to be facts and keeping fiction off both the pages and the airwaves. Can today's media make that same claim? I don't think so. The yellow journalism of the early 20th century didn't die; it simply evolved into biased reporting. Ethics in the media are taught in the classroom and scoffed at in the newsroom. The mixed messages are not lost upon the students. Our role models are as underhanded as the men they "expose." Yet, what do they teach us? We are told to be the responsible journalists of tomorrow. We choose to be the responsible journalists of today. Unbound will not change the world. In reality, it will probably be read by fewer people than the National Enquirer or other tabloid magazines. That's fine. For those that will read us, I hope you get a sense of truth and fairness in our reporting and a level of dedication in our production. Biases are easy. Hatred, prejudicial or otherwise, can overwhelm the emotions and control the actions. Being honest, fair and loving of peers is the difficult way to live. It takes strength of character, the type that one man demonstrated by standing sixty-feet and six inches away from a man who was about to throw a baseball at his temple. He and his teammates, through integrity and honesty, changed the world. We can do the same -- we can become Unbound. Thank you, Jackie Robinson. Our magazine may not have a number 42 to retire, but your legacy and your achievements will not be forgotten. It will be easier for us because of you. --Craig Sachson