where is walter?

I am old enough to remember, sitting in front of the television set in the living room of

my home on the day that the United States set up a blockade off the coast of Cuba. It

was, for Americans, the very real possibility of a nuclear war, not starting in Europe but

off the coastline of the United States. It was one of the first times my three sisterʼs mother and father

and I all sat in one place at one time to watch anything on television.

This was October 14, 1962.

We tuned to CBS, and only trusted one man, Walter Cronkite, correspondent/journalist to

guide us through the emotional, factual, very real threats that could bring relief or just

introduce all of us to a bleak, dead future.

Mr. Cronkite did not get into the politics of if what was happening in Cuba was right or

wrong, nor did he bring in "talking heads", from the right or the left, to debate if the

blockade was wise. What Mr. Cronkite did was to present real facts on what was

happening now and all the possible scenarios of the next steps in the already eventful

series of events. He knew we were scared and that only through lack of fact or

knowledge scared could turn into fear and fear would lead to chaos, confusion and

catastrophe.

There was enough bickering, politicking and posturing going on in Washington. Enough

"l told you so’s," "if you had only listened to me’s", headline grabbing chicanery in front

of cameras and reporters to fill hundreds of newspapers. There was enough second and

third guesses floating like chips to fill thousands of craps tables in Vegas. There was

enough pontificating blame and blasphemy to make anyone frightened even more

anxious and afraid. So Walter Cronkite just wanted "the facts, ma’m, nothing but the

facts", to be heard by the American public.

And it was through professional television correspondents like Mister Cronkite, (who did

not try to reach the lowest common denominator of Americans, who did not try to dumb

down the news, who did not wish for fiction to be considered fact, who asked the hard

questions and did not settle for the simple answers or for no answers), I learned that truth

was possible to be heard, that honesty made sense, that ethics and values had a place in the

world of mass communications.

It is so sad that in 2009, many Americans no longer care if we receive the real news. We

have little desire to learn the facts, listen to the whole story, or allow truth to be spoken.

So many entertainers (so called news people) both on the right and the left have found a

profitable soap box and have stood high on their perch, sprouting bias, bigotry and b.s

just to ramp up their careers, and their cash flow. So often do they level charges with

little fact. So often do they accuse without any reason. So often is the story more about

THEIR cause and personality. So often do they lie without any conscience or care'?

We have so much unfinished business to complete, left over from the Bush/Cheney eight

year fiasco's. We have a recession, two wars, health care, marriage rights, civil rights, a

resurgence of religious bigotry, racial divide, climate change, joblessness (to just

name a few) to deal with, decide upon and solve. We have to find a common

denominator, a consensus, a conscience!

Yet when we tune in to television or radio, we are supplied with all the reasons "why

not", all the ruminations as to "never", all the excuses to say no. Then we are provided

the lines drawn in the sand by those whose voices we hear, words we listen to those who

disguise themselves as "fair and balanced", "news you can count on“ "the place for

politics.

And the divide grows wider the rift deeper, and the disgust greater.

I don’t linger for the years gone by to come back. N0! I am living in the present, but if

we forget how we got where we are by not learning form both the bad and the good of the past,

I doubt we can trudge along much further to the future.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we started to hear the news from people, who don’t teach or preach

partisanship, but who evoke fact and reason'? Shouldn't we demand this?

I do miss Walter Cronkite!