What I Got For Fitzmas
Fri Oct 28, 2005 at 09:07:15 PM PDT
In my home, on the wall of my finished basement, hanged a hand sketched rendering of Ronald Reagan with a 10-gallon hat and a cowboy-looking denim button shirt. My father was a Reagan Democrat and an immigrant. The first election he was able to legally vote in was 1984, which he voted for Reagan, as did just about everyone else in the country.
I am the eldest offspring of my parents. My father loved American politics and loved watching World News Tonight With Peter Jennings and 20/20. We were an ABC family. Being the oldest and having just one TV in my home, caused me to follow a lot more news than the average 8-10 year old would.
Today, I was at work while the Patrick Fitzgerald press conference was being broadcast. Due to the metal roof at work, the only major network that can be viewed clearly is ABC. Once again, it was ABC bringing me my news.
[Cross posted at LJ's Blogorific. Feel free to visit the site.]
For an hour, outside of being totally unproductive at work, a strange thing happened. I went back in time about 20 years in my head. More accurately, I went back 20 years in my perception of government, politics, and news.
The man on the TV who just steered a grand jury into indicting a senior White House official, was talking to the country. He was talking to me. But the way he was talking to me was Deja Vu.
My mind reeled back to the mid to late 80's. This is how they used to talk. There stood a man, a prosecutor from Chicago, and he was just telling the truth. There was no agenda. There was no motive in his selection of terms. No one focus group tested this speech or directed him to repeat key words over and over again. His theme was the truth. He just stood up there and spoke the truth.
Now don't get me wrong. I by no means am arguing that Reagan and his realm of politicians in the 80's were straight-talking to "the folks." (But by no means was it anywhere as close to as bad as it is now.) What I am saying is that as a pre-adolescent, if men in suits standing in our nation's capitol were saying something, my reality was they were telling the truth.
For an hour this afternoon, it felt like it is supposed to feel when those who are public servants speak to the public. The backdrop didn't have some slogan attempting to embed in my subconscious. For an hour this afternoon, even the media looked media-esk. The media seemed to feel the importance of the situation. The media seemed to realize that they were a part of history today, and they wanted history to look back on this day and say, "The media, they did their part."
There was a certain trust that I felt today in the system, in the process. Although my partisan self would have preferred the entire clan indicted and frog marched in front of all those cameras, and the prosecutor to have been wildly denouncing this criminal enterprise as just that. Patrick Fitzgerald just made me believe in our system of justice in this country. His words made me feel honored and proud to be a citizen of a country that has such an amazing process in place to protect the public from those who would try to harm us, and prosecute those who have harmed us.
Today, I watched the America that I once saw through the eyes of an 8 year old. Today, for an hour, it actually felt like America. For the first time in 5 years, (if not longer,) it felt like I could trust those serving me, to do so honorably and efficiently. Today, I felt that those in the media actually were asking questions that I too, wanted answers too.
Today, for about an hour, I got America back. That's what I got for Fitzmas.
Thank you Patrick Fitzgerald for being who you are.
Thank You!
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