{"id":325086,"date":"2017-04-15T12:55:51","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T18:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=325086"},"modified":"2017-06-19T11:40:13","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T17:40:13","slug":"haussamen-wins-first-place-award-for-commentary-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/04\/haussamen-wins-first-place-award-for-commentary-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Haussamen wins first-place award for commentary writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"NMPolitics.net editor and publisher Heath Haussamen won a first-place award for commentary writing\u00a0in the multi-state Top of the Rockies contest<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

“Heath’s concern for his community is evident yet he doesn’t sugarcoat the real problems it faces,” a contest judge wrote. “And he links national perspective to local angles seamlessly. His conversational tone invites a reader to stick around awhile.”<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net was also recognized for the strength of its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Heath

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Haussamen won the first-place news column award for\u00a0three commentaries\u00a0he wrote in 2016:<\/p>\n

Police officers have a damn hard job<\/a>: After participating\u00a0in a law enforcement use-of-force training, Haussamen wrote about the complexities of shootings involving police officers.<\/p>\n

“Killings of cops and by cops are too often sparked\u00a0by our society\u2019s deeper problems,” he wrote. “…\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0work more tenaciously and collaboratively to combat the problems that plague our society.\u00a0We owe it to our police officers, and to the people they encounter while doing their jobs.”<\/p>\n

Grieving, then moving into action after Victoria’s death<\/a>: When\u00a010-year-old Victoria Martens was killed in Albuquerque, Haussamen\u00a0shared what he had learned from covering\u00a0seven child-abuse deaths in Do\u00f1a Ana County over three years. “I\u2019ve shaken my fist at the sky and screamed. I\u2019ve wept. When I read Brianna\u2019s autopsy report, I vomited,” he wrote. “And I\u2019ve fantasized about homicide.”<\/p>\n

Haussamen\u00a0asked\u00a0New Mexicans to commit to honest self-reflection about the state of our society. “It starts by grieving, and continues by acting,” he wrote. “We can create a better society. Our children need us to make the choice to do that.”<\/p>\n

My commitment in Donald Trump’s America<\/a>: Haussamen wrote about growing up in Santa Fe in the 1990s, when voters elected\u00a0a mayoral candidate who fanned\u00a0the flames of economic tension and racial anxiety. He related that experience to Trump becoming president.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m processing how to move forward as a human being and a journalist,” Haussamen\u00a0wrote. “I know I must keep telling stories and facilitating discussions that help us understand each other.”<\/p>\n

Haussamen\u00a0competed against journalists from Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in a category that included\u00a0newspapers with a print circulation of 10,000-29,999 and\u00a0several online-only media outlets. Journalists from the Colorado Independent<\/a> won second and third place for news columns in that\u00a0category.<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0also won second place for general excellence in the category\u00a0that included\u00a0newspapers with a print circulation of 10,000-29,999 and online-only news organizations.<\/p>\n

The annual Top of the Rockies competition is sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists\u2019 Colorado chapter<\/a>. The awards were announced Friday at an event in Denver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The award came in the annual multi-state Top of the Rockies contest. NMPolitics.net was also recognized for the strength of its website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":55852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3297,630],"tags":[3268,137],"class_list":["post-325086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journalism-awards","category-news-about-nmpolitics-net","tag-journalism","tag-news-about-this-site"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}