Don't Mind Me Today, I'm Just Cantankerous

There was the day of Nixon's funeral and how I got to listen to it and various recaps of his administration for an entire morning. Every May his resignation speech was played. Every May I am giddy with joy at hearing it again.

There were the hazy days of cocaine, booze, weight gain, peeing in the studio, and nights at Elaine's. They are as much of blur to me as to him as I was only six.

Bumpy, country roads on my way to school where my greatest joy was listening to his voice talk politics and start a book club of sorts in the mid-90's even as he broadcast from the hospital with deflated lungs. As a non-Kennedy loving New Englander his bits on Ted Kennedy got me each time.

Making my college roommie sick with embarrassment because her roommate listens to an old, white man each morning before class.

Finding that same voice on the radio dial regardless of where I have lived and spending each election season listening as he tirelessly questions the candidates and wouldn't let them skirt the issues like other people do.

Hearing my local radio station this morning use many derogatory terms and racist remarks for the bazillionth time. A-ha, ha, ha...how witty and original. Still on the radio without question I might add.

I love America. We get all riled up, find a target, fire that target because he's the best example (old, white geezer is the best I have to say), and create a huge media blitz congratulating ourselves about how we are making the world better. Yup, sensationalized news always does that am I right? Yet in a week or a month it will be gone, the radio airwaves will be the same. Couric will plagiarize again and nothing will happen because she's so darned cute. If another Anna Nicole had died or Britney Spears had knocked over a liquor store this week that would have taken over instead. Right now the airwaves would be ripe with discussions about how she's ruining America's young girls. Super stores would still sell Bratz dolls though and people would still buy them for the under eight crowd.

I may not have loved or agreed with everything that man had to say, but I grew up hearing his voice each morning and it was oddly comforting to find it wherever my life took me. I don't love or agree with everything anyone has to say or stand for 100 percent. However, I learned so much about books, sports, politics and more. I learned the impact a person can make for a charitable cause or two and now I'm left to wonder will his firing really make a difference? I think no.