I just heard a report that there is a proposal to name a bridge (or was it a stretch of highway?) after the late, great Tim Russert. This bit was followed by the report that flags were being flown at half-mast in his memory. The first thought that entered my mind was what you see in the title bar. Does this guy really warrant that kind of recognition?
As it sank into this thick skull (of which so many of you are familiar) I realized that, yes, indeed Mr. Russert has earned that honor.
I would be lying if I said I was a great fan of his and faithfully watched Meet the Press every week. I'm not and didn't. I don't even have cable! However, I cannot think of a week in the last ten years or so when I did not hear his voice, or the thought provoking questions he asked of EVERYONE. No matter where I got my news, I would hear that so and so had said on, "Meet the Press," this that or the other thing, and then the radio station would play the clip with that memorable voice. There is no denying that it was the most respected AND respectable of the weekend political roundup shows. I guess "freedom of the press" is easily taken for granted in a society that monitors the movement and reproductive habits of Britney and her kid sister, but, damn, if Tim Russert wasn't like a branch of government! Always well informed of his topics he would ask the questions we all wanted answered by our public officials, and to their faces! It didn't matter what party was being represented by his guest, Mr. Russert went for the truth on our behalf.
So, for what it's worth, I may not be a great fan but I will certainly miss Tim Russert. I guess he was just one of those things that you don't really appreciate until they are gone.
2 comments:
Amen, Elgarf.
There are several "hard parts" about losing Tim Russert.
As a society, we have lost a man who was "in tune" with the queries we had and was in a position to seek those answers (and received those answers by not allowing anyone to escape his questions!). I think most of the Washington insiders knew that to go on his show was to expect to answer directly to the American people.
I salute Tim Russert for this and say that for the service he provided us, they should not only name a bridge after him, but they should make sure they name one that is currently named for a politican and change it because whatever any politician has done on our behalf, Tim Russert did them one better by doing just what you said - he demanded nothing more or less than an honest answer to the questions we all had.
The other part that makes his passing so hard was the exceptional person he was. I know it's one thing to say this, it is yet another thing altogether to mean it.
And I mean it.
What, specifically, I mean is he championed what a father meant to him and spoke of what a father should be to his children. Tim Russert wrote a book entitled Big Russ & Me about his relationship with his father; soon after, due to the popularity of the book, he wrote another. What was this second book about? Was it preaching to us about how he was a better father or a better son than any of us because he had the pulpit? Many people tend to do that. He did not.
He wrote his second book, Wisdom of Our Fathers as a tribute to US and to OUR FATHERS! He received so many letters after Big Russ & Me that he decided to share them with everyone else.
How noble a thing to represent us politically - and then CELEBRATE our love of and from our own fathers.
What a bittersweet irony it was to lose him on Father's Day.
To his son and his father, Big Russ, I would simply say - just as this has comforted me - Tim Russert was no ordinary man and there was no way he deserved to die on an ordinary day! Elgarf has heard me speak of this in a personal case with me - but it is so very true.
Rest in Peace, Tim Russert.
Man, what a poweful statement and great tribute. You are absolutely correct. Mr. Russert did represent us much better than those who are elected to do just that. Very well put, Chief.
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