I Heard the News Today

8-8-2005 - 6:06 p.m.

Confessions of a 26-year old news junkie:

Peter Jennings was my "Elvis". He had it all, the brains, the smooth voice, the dashing good looks, the power to meet with world leaders, the suave sophistication. I fell in love with him sometime during 7th grade. He made the news cool to a middle-school girl. I wanted to marry Peter Jennings. He made me want to know what was happening in the world. He inspired my curiousity. In recent years, Peter made it okay to question the blind Nationalism that gripped the nation after
9/11. He represented the U.S. in a way that I wish our leaders could. Peter seemed to want Americans to be smart, worldy, and cultured... to give a damn about the rest of the world. I wanted the same.

I cried today because somehow, that 7th grade girl that I used to be was lost today. The girl with naive dreams about a shiny future. The girl with way too much knowledge about current events. The girl who became known as the "Geography Queen" in school.

I loved Peter because I respected Peter. I wanted to be like Peter when I grew up. Today, not only did the object of my affection die, but so did that dream. Actually, that dream died long ago, but today it somehow became brutally final.... I will never be a sophisticated jet-setter. I will never meet with foreign dignitaries to discuss world affairs. I'll never dine with presidents. And I'll never marry Peter Jennnings.

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