Peter Jennings Dead
(click on Peter for special surprise.)
I always liked this guy, Jennings. He had a wry sense of humor, probably part of the Canadian in him. And he seemed, compared to his network peers of Brockaw and Rather, to be more sincere, more honest and more of a real journalist. I read somewhere recently, and I don't recall where, one family compared him to the Cronkite of our generation. ABC News and Peter Jennings with his Canadian accent and sense of irony and optimism, was always the channel they tuned to whenever anything big happened. Me too. I remember sitting in the Holguin's basement in the days after 9/11 and listening to Peter tell me about this new world we are living in. His was the voice of compassion and reason in a world that needed it the most. In a recent interview he said lately, the thing he was most proud of is that he never covered the Lacey Peterson affair. No so much as a mention on ABC World News Tonight. Folks can get that kind of news somewhere else was his take on it.
I began missing him in April, when he he announced his battle with lung cancer. And I miss him today. If you need another reason to quit smoking, think of this: Jennings smoked for many, many years, but 20 years, I repeat, 20 years ago, he quit smoking.
Off and on for the last six or seven years he was having some real health problems and in April it was finally determined that the issue was cancer - a little over four months from his diagnosis to to his death. And cancer is not an easy or a painless way to go. It is grueling, it is senseless and it shows no mercy. Take my point - he quit smoking 20 years ago and the disease was still growing, festering and mestatizing in his lungs, waiting to break out and take his life. Stop smoking. Now. Don't wait another day.
posted by majikwah @ 8/08/2005 10:05:00 AM
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