When Michael and I were discussing the parameters of this column, he told me that my subject matter should have something to do with Henderson and/or Vance County. It makes sense, after all, since the site is called “Home in Henderson.” So what does Peter Jennings have to do with Henderson and/or Vance County? Well, not a lot, I imagine. I don’t know that he ever came here. I don’t know that anyone in Henderson knew him or met him. Our Charlie Rose is in the same business. Maybe they’ve met.
| I doubt I’m the only one in Henderson who’s sad about Peter Jennings. There’s my connection. Take it or leave it.
I know that Peter has been in my house a lot over the past four years, virtually speaking. Maybe he’s been at your place a lot, too. He wasn’t always welcome in my house, though. When he took over ABC’s “World News Tonight” in 1983, I frankly didn’t think much of him. He was just a pretty face, another talking head in a tuneless choir of talking heads. But many of us were still reeling from the retirement of Walter Cronkite two years earlier. Some of us still are. |
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Almost four years ago now, on Sept. 11, he was in my house for 18 hours straight. I don’t remember why I settled on him rather than CBS, or NBC, or CNN, or (Heaven forbid!) Fox News. It could be that I was tired of flipping through the news channels, and ABC just happened to be the one I came to rest upon. It hardly matters now. What matters is that I watched Peter sift through the enormity of what had happened that day. It was a delicate process, but he accomplished it with compassion, with empathy, clearly fatigued but projecting an aura of “it’s all going to make sense eventually.” I felt like what I imagine the Brady kids felt about their dad in their white-bread TV universe. I felt like I had a strong, wise father looking out for me, and if he didn’t know the answers, he at least knew what questions to ask. He believed that the answers were worth knowing, and he could make me believe it, too. That feeling never really faded. Since Sept. 11, I’ve invited Peter over a lot. Even on the days I didn’t watch him on the news, I knew that he was out there if I needed him, ready to provide a little perspective, a little wisdom, a bit of stability in a world that grows increasingly incomprehensible. I felt that way about the Beatles, before John Lennon was assassinated. I felt that way about Johnny Carson, too, before he retired. Now I don’t feel that way about anybody. Goodbye. God bless. |
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