WALTER CRONKITE - RIP

Boston 1968 ... barely 19, I was exposed to this 'all-time-great journalist' as a Freshman at Tufts. The 8 years I spent in America were historical, the era of an evolutionary - in fact revolutionary - America. What seems cliches now ie Flower Child; Woodstock; Make Love Not War; Black Panthers; Chicago Convention; Kent State; Moratorium on Vietnam; Campus Sit-In; Acapulco Gold ie Marijuana @ US$25 an ounce .... were front & center and Cronkite was there, daily. 'College Kids' as we were labelled, were so politically conscious then we watched his 730pm news every evening after dinner, at Carmichael Hall I even remember, where there was a 'huge' 30" television set. 'My mother will not serve dinner until Cronkite signs off', someone said in an interview yesterday. I also remember the Summer of 1969 (I was a kitchen hand/bus boy at the Christopher Ryder House in Chatham, Cape Cod) and that surreal night 40 years ago when we watched Neil Armstrong made that 'One Small Step for Man' .... Yes, Cronkite was there reporting in his usual calming but nonetheless totally amazed voice.

Knowing what I know now and after finishing a 36-year career the Cronkite name, to me, equates a litany of the best accolades one can give a career achiever. Try these : trustworthy, professional, integrity, honesty, humor, eloquence, style, dedication, fairness, commitment, ethical, legendary, charisma, mentor, counsel, icon, doyen .... and there must be many more to the list. To make Cronkite even more noble one only has to look at the daily trash in our tabloids, where circulation is determined by the BS from a fung-shui crook, by gory pictures, by human greed, by gossips around the entertainment circle ... all eagerly consumed by insatiable citizens. It is just nauseating. The world, not just America, will miss Cronkite and especially those who grew up with him, like myself.