Thoughts On a Truly Historic Week Of Events

I have criticized local broadcast stations for not running editorials or commentaries, which I think is part of their obligation to operate in “the public interest.”  These ceased to exist on the death of Ralph Gabbard, President of WKYT-TV some years ago. I have also criticized the network newscasts for letting anchors give their personal opinions without so labeling them. A big difference from the erudite days of Eric Sevareid on CBS. 

Scott Pelley gave his personal opinion last Friday at the end of a momentous week of news. It wasn’t labeled as an opinion, as it should have been, but I can forgive him because of the events he reported..and he captured their spirit well.

Here is what he said:

The first American idea, that "all men are created equal," has never been honored. It was aspiration, more than declaration. And so the struggle for progress has been the inheritance of every American since.

Pressure for equality builds. And once in a great while, like a tectonic fault, there's a sudden lurch forward. That's the quake we felt this week.

Monday, South Carolina moved to strike the Confederate battle flag. Overnight, there was a national rush to obliterate relics of oppression. Shopkeepers and state houses couldn't remove them fast enough -- as if they had been noticed for the first time.

   

Friday, the tremor moved the stone at the court -- shifting the words carved there - nearer to the truth. Millions of Americans, for the first time in our history, achieved their "equal justice under law."

The African-American poet, Langston Hughes, wrote: "Let America be America again...It never was America to me."

The truths, "self-evident" at our founding, are not self-fulfilling. We the people, are founding today the America that was promised.

Well said..and worth remembering as America continues to face the pervasive problems race---and our views of race---create for our democracy.

I'm just sayin'...