Recently overheard: One co-worker remarking to another that they “feel so sorry for these kids in their 20s. They just don’t have a future in this business.”

Sorry, but it’s the other way around, dinojournos: I feel sorry for you lot. You have no particular talents or skills that would get you hired at even the tiniest weekly rag if you were just entering the job market, no inclination to acquire such skills, and you’re probably too young and/or too cash poor to afford retirement, even with the buyout offer that you are no doubt mere months away from being forced to accept.

Attention doomsayers, pessimists and all newspaper people who otherwise might fairly be labeled dinojournos: If you’re too dumb or shortsighted to see a future in this business for people my age, please do us a favor and GET THE HELL OUT OF IT. Immediately. Please take your comparatively gigantic salary and utter lack of imagination or passion, pack them up in a cardboard document box, turn in your ID tag at the security desk, and don’t turn back.

It is impossible to overstate how tired I am of hearing newspaper staffers and editors who are desperately hoping to cruise to retirement tell me that there’s no future for this business. Not with that kind of attitude, there isn’t.

Here’s my bottom line: I love this business, and I’m dedicated to securing its future. I recognize, respect and value the newspaper industry’s history and traditions, and I wish we’d shut up about them already, pull the finger out, and get on with writing the next chapter. If your heart’s not in it anymore, if you think papers are becoming something in which you’re no longer interested, then quit. But if you love it as much as I do, then stop wringing your hands and start busting your ass. Stop wasting your time on six-meeting days and start hustling.

Yes, things look grim, and the situation absolutely will get worse before it gets better. The challenges are only going to continue coming at us. What do I say to that? As one of America’s great modern orators once said: My answer is bring ‘em on. Let’s innovate and think our way through this shit storm and come out the other side having built a stronger, smarter newspaper industry. I’m excited. How about you?

UPDATE: Now significantly less potty-mouthed! I’m feeling better now. Better and, as Matt suggested, much, much less caffeinated.