Tim Russert was one of those journalists who I totally adored.
You know how we become attached to the faces and voices we allow into our living room each night - the ones we trust to deliver good news and bad, the ones who comfort, make us smile, and make us THINK. They are people we'd love to have over for a BBQ or coffee because we feel as if we know them as if they are family because, after all, they're in our homes all the time and always by invitation. Tim Russert had that kind of impact on me.
I LOVED watching and listening to Tim on the Today Show while getting ready for work. He would be on and I would be late - simple as that! And with the primary, he's was on a LOT (and I was late a LOT!) His delight in the political process, his infamous white board (Florida, Florida, Florida!), his exhuberance, his joy, his unmitigated excitement with the way this country functioned (sometimes in a wonky fashion) - it all would come into my (our) living room in a big rush wrapped up with a smile and his "can you believe it?" How on earth does the election coverage get done the way it should without him being here? How do the important interviews that held nothing back - to either side - get done. Who will fill those huge shoes?
He died without warning and perhaps that is also why its hit me so personally. I lost my Dad without warning too also of a heart attack. I want time - time back instead of these sudden "he's gone" announcements. I hate it.
So here we sit at Father's Day weekend and the persistent "why why why" keeps going thru my head; the feeling that "this isn't happening, it isn't real". Of course there are no answers to the questions ... no great understanding of the "big picture" and all of it is painfully too real. One of the good guys is gone, and our lives are changed again.
You are missed by people you never met Mr. Russert; but you touched all of us. You made us care a little more, you made us pay attention, you made us question and listen. Thank you and Bless You.
