Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

Just saw a Reuters report that journalist Walter Cronkite , often called "the most trusted man in America," has died at the age of 92. Born in Missouri on November 4, 1916, he moved to Houston, Texas when he was ten. His broadcast career began when he was 20 and became a radio announcer in Oklahoma. During WWII he covered North Africa and Europe, and was selected to fly on bombing raids over Germany. After the war he covered the Nuremberg Trials. Edward R Murrow recruited him for the new CBS television division in 1950. He became the anchorman of the CBS Evening News on April 16, 1962. Hearing his voice crack when announcing the official confirmation of John Kennedy's death was a defining moment for a generation. My generation. He was a passionate supporter of the U.S. space program and covered most of the launches for CBS. After a Cronkite editorial that called the Viet Nam war unwinnable, Lyndon Johnson reportedly said, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I'...

Looking back, 1968 was when I stopped being a child. I was in 8th grade that year, at Hubbard Trail Junior High, in Crete, Illinois, just outside Chicago -- a clueless 13 year old. Events would take place that year -- terrible events -- that rocked our society and would force me to stop seeing the world through innocent eyes. The first of these was the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. At the time, I still lived in a community largely uninhabited by people who were not white. In fact, despite the segregation that still gripped the south where I was born, I had much more exposure to African-Americans growing up in as a young child in Texas. On April 5th, the day after Dr. King's assassination, our usually wise-cracking U.S. Government teacher (or was it history?--memory fails me here) dropped his lesson plans and instead poured out his despair over the soul of a nation where such a heinous act could take place. As I listened, I realized this made as little sense to...