Bob CollinsWhen newspapers die, what will we save on historic days? Another Saturday night, Egypt’s shame, when people do good, and we’re all going to be OK.
It’s Monday. Rouser Monday. So rouse, already!
1) THE FRONT PAGE OF HISTORY
Somewhere stashed in the crawl space under the stairs, there’s a box full of old newspapers. I save history, just as millions of people before me have. “Man Lands on Moon,” “President Kennedy Assassinated,” “United States Elects First Black President,” and “Celtics Win 16th Championship” are all there, somewhere. Curiously, the one event for which I don’t have a newspaper is 9/11, which is ironic since I delivered 400 of them for the Pioneer Press on 9/12.
I don’t know why I save these; I’ve never pulled the box out, grabbed a paper and showed it to anyone. My kids don’t care about them. But they’re the only way we can leave a reminder that something important happened and we were once alive to experience it. It’s how we attach ourselves to history.
The killing of bin Laden, of course, will be a worthy addition. Which one of the many papers will I get and save? Here are some of the options (Click on the image to change it):
(h/t: Newseum)
If newspapers die, what will use to connect ourselves to history?
As I watched the news leak out, drip by drip, on Twitter, I tried to save some of them for the future, but it simply wasn’t the same.
2) JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT
The art of being president includes pretending everything is normal, and nothing is going on. While the bin Laden operation was underway, President Obama went to the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday.
3) EGYPT’S SHAME
There aren’t many interviews that can make you shake your head the way any decent person must have been shaking his/hers after last evening’s 60 Minutes interview with Lara Logan, the CBS reporter who was sexually assaulted in the middle of the celebration of the end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule in Egypt. At the height of the assault, she said, she looked up and all she could see were her her rapists’ cellphones taking pictures.
The video is here. But the CBS “Overtime” site has an additional part of the interview including this: “It felt like I was lying in the dirt. I was dirt.”
A 22-year-old woman is about to graduate from Minnesota State University Moorhead, but she hasn’t forgotten her fight with cancer, nor the trauma of losing her hair. A few months ago during a five-year checkup, Ingrid Myrum learned the cancer center was almost out of chemo caps, the Fargo Forum reports. So the community started knitting. And knitting.
5) IT’LL BE OK
Former Pine City and Rice Lake radio host (and Grantsburg native) Adam McCune, late of the Manchester Union Leader, has produced this trailer for a new book. It’s the message everyone delivers when times are tough, a symbol of our instinctive optimism for the future: “We’ll all be OK.” And he makes you believe it.
Here’s to a bountiful harvest!
(h/t: Paul Bellefeuille)
Bonus: When nerds are cool…
Nerds raise the bar for the rest of us men…
TODAY’S QUESTION
President Obama announced Sunday night that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Today’s Question: What is your reaction to that news?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
This schedule of programming is certain to change because of the bin Laden story.
Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) – First hour: What Bin Laden’s death means for the future of al Qaeda and the war on terror.
Second hour: Revisiting Jane Eyre.
Midday (11 a.m. – 1 p.m.) – First hour: The newly-named Minnesota teacher of the year.
Second hour: Fareed Zakaria, who presented the Distinguished Carlson Lecture at the University. of Minnesota on Friday about current global issues.
Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) – First hour: The challenges in Syria.
Second hour: The changing role of administrative assistants.
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – The latest from Pakistan.
And: Are older musicians owed back-pay to the tune of millions?
