TBD

TBD on Ning

It is always interesting to me at what events in my life and in the world I shed tears. A friend once told me you can’t help how you feel. Tonight, I learned of the death of Walter Cronkite. As I saw his face on the television and heard the sound of his voice once again, the tears started to come. I found this odd, at least at first.

Growing up black in America was not as hard on me as it was on my parents, grandparents, or even my older sister, but it was no walk in the park either. As I watched the progress of civil rights through newspapers and news broadcasts, I learned two contradictory facts. There were many white people who hated any notion of blacks (or any other race or color of people) achieving parity or anything approaching parity in terms of civil rights. At the same time, there were white people who stood with, marched with, and worked to support black people protesting for justice. They were threatened, beaten, pummeled with fire hoses and even killed right along side black folks. Walter Cronkite covered their struggle honestly and with professionalism even when it was not popular to do so. He was virtually always the objective journalist, even though I thought he was on our side. But that’s not why my tears came.

Cronkite was named “the most trusted man in American” in several polls in the early 1970s. And he earned that title day after day in living rooms across the country, not just because he was there, but because of the way he did his job. It is difficult to even imagine what I’m talking about in these days of opinion-flavored, opinion-laden, news-sort-of-but-mostly-opinion-that-passes-for-news, let’s-pit-two-opposing-views-against-each-other-and-call-it-fair-and-balanced coverage. Walter Cronkite tried mightily to get it first and get it right. His voice and his face became synonymous with objectivity and fairness. To hear him say, “and that’s the way it was,” was to signify the definitive end of the daily evening briefing/continuing-education of the nation. I trusted him. Still that’s not why my tears came.

Cronkite became, in my young mind, a white face that could be trusted, a honest bearer of news both good and bad, a regular fixture of the American landscape, and a reassuring presence that for me meant “safe harbor” in an America that was still sometimes hostile to people to looked like me. Losing him on July 17th 2009 was like losing a family friend. In a place where acceptance, in my mind, was always tentative at best, I recognized in Cronkite someone more trustworthy than the police, more honest than the president, and perhaps more spiritually centered than my pastor. Were I a child lost in a crowd and saw Walter Cronkite, I would go to him without fear or hesitation, secure in the knowledge that I would somehow be helped. What is that worth? Who and how many engender that kind of trust today? Cronkite is worth shedding some tears over.

He was a pillar, an icon, a master journalist, but he was also one of us. This, we recognized, and so bound ourselves to him, like to a life preserver in the vast and tossing sea of time and events. I mourn along with his family and his nation and pray that the likes of him will dare to walk among us again.

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Comment by Vernon Windsor on September 9, 2009 at 10:00am
President Obama speaks at Walter Cronkite's memorial today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/walter-cronkite-memorial_n_280445.html
Comment by spiritedstrider on August 13, 2009 at 7:58pm
This was so moving. Thank you for sharing.
Comment by Rytvyt on August 1, 2009 at 1:22pm
Vernon - eloquently and elegantly put - as always. It is, indeed, sad to think that an entire generation (and perhaps more than one) of children will grow up never having experienced that level of trust and belief in a single, iconic figure.
In this day and age when sensationalism is more valued than honest reportage, when politicians point their fingers at the behavior of others merely as a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from their own misdeeds, and when we are being defrauded wholesale by the system that is supposed to protect us with checks and balances, I worry about who our children will look to for an honest and unbiased accounting of the world we are leaving them...
Comment by Kadie on July 21, 2009 at 11:04am
Wow. A lot of news agencies are missing some very good talent. I don't think I could've read a better tribute anywhere else.
Comment by msladydeborah on July 20, 2009 at 11:52pm
Cronkite became my doorway to the world outside of my community. I always identify his newscast as being a part of our family time. We would sit down and watch his broadcast every night.
Comment by Dazzling Zoomer Gal Diana on July 19, 2009 at 3:06pm
Thank you Vernon. I found myself with tears in my eyes when I heard, it was akin to losing a distant relative one had know all one's life that one could trust, implicitly. Returning to the US after years and years spent in places where blatant and even latent prejudice and discrimination is unheard of, it comes as shock to read your perspective. Your tribute is moving, instructive, and compassionate. Again. I thank you.
Comment by Tina on July 19, 2009 at 12:31pm
Yes he was a wonderful human being and made many contributions to the goodness and changes in our history. Mr. Windsor, What a beautiful tribute, thank you!
Comment by Kittycat on July 19, 2009 at 8:33am
Thank you so much for those eloquent thoughts.
Comment by KBeenThere on July 18, 2009 at 9:33pm
Wow Vernon, I always like to read what you are able to fabulously put into prose. Thought I would let you know that after the beautiful remembrance you wrote on Walter Cronkite. I like it that you are here with us still.
Comment by ZenDog on July 18, 2009 at 8:26pm
He didn't prevent our entry into Viet Nam, and it isn't at all clear that he helped shorten our stay; but his coverage of the event was at least honest, and his appraisal, when it came, accurate. I feel he has been sorely missed long before the day of his final passing.

Thanks Vernon.

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