NOW, IMAGINE HE’S WHITE . . .

   A couple of days ago, Professor Henry Gates, Jr. was seen breaking into his house, having lost or forgotten his keys. His neighbor called the police, the correct thing to do, who arrived soon after he gained entrance to the house. The police officer demanded identification from a man he didn’t know and, after being assured that it was, indeed, Professor Gates’ house, he asked him to step outside, subsequent to which he was arrested for disorderly conduct. He was soon release, and the charges dropped in this unfortunate incident.

   Not long after this occurred, there was national news coverage, including mention of it in a presidential news conference, with the assertion that the arrest was race related. The facts, however, are still at issue. Perhaps it was an issue of racial profiling, or perhaps Professor Gates became so enraged over his perceived mistreatment by the police (some of whom were African-American I might add), that he, indeed, behaved badly and was justifiably arrested on a disorderly conduct charge. At this point, WE DO NOT KNOW.

   In one of the more famous movie courtroom closing statements, Matthew McConaughy tells the story of the rape, beating and attempted murder of a little black girl to an all white jury in a small southern town and, after describing the actions in detail, directs the jury whose eyes are closed, “now imagine she’s white!” Of course, his client is acquitted.

   Neither I, nor anyone but the parties involved really know what occurred at Professor Gates’ house that day, and perhaps there needs to be an investigation if there was racial profiling involved, but before we pre-judge the incident before all the facts are in, I would ask everyone to imagine the scene at the house; the hulking police officer(s), the enraged Professor . . . NOW IMAGINE HE’S WHITE!

WE WERE DIFFERENT THEN

   When Walter Cronkite died, it was more than the end of an era in broadcast journalism, it ended an era in the history of the American (and perhaps the world) psyche. It has been said that he was the most trusted person in America during his time, and perhaps the most trusted man in the world. He reported the news with as little bias as possible, and never forgot that his first obligation was to inform, and to hold public figures accountable for their actions.

   There were only three networks when he began his career, which meant you watched him, or one of the other two for your evening news. Most of the country watched him. He was not without bias, or emotion. Certainly the broadcasts of the Kennedy assassination, the Viet Nam war, and the Moon landings showed that. And he was never afraid to let us in on his feelings, without demanding that we join him. Perhaps that was his greatest gift; the connection he had with his audience. Aristotle once quipped that the mark of an educated man is the ability to entertain an idea without adopting it. “Uncle Walter” could do that, and present the ideas to us for our own assessment.

   Today, with the proliferation of media including 24/7 cable news, the Internet, Social Media, etc., news travels instantaneously, and there is unlikely to be anyone who is quite in the spotlight the way Walter Cronkite was. More importantly, though, is that there is no one today about whom the public, here in America or abroad, feels the connection and the trust that he engendered. We were different then, and his honesty, good humor and the trust he engendered were signs of that difference. We are less naive now, less trusting of anyone, and perhaps that’s a good thing, but we’ll miss his character. If he were still alive, and broadcasting, I suspect we would trust him as much now as we did then.

   Goodbye Walter, and goodbye to our adolescence. We were both different then, “and that’s the way it was. . .”