Quindlen Comes to Bridgewater

On Thursday evening of this week, my life-mate, Priscille, volunteered to go to Borders in Bridgewater to get an autographed copy of “Rise and Shine” by Newsweek columnist and author, Anna Quindlen. Pris also snapped the digital photo for this post. I, on the other hand, was at the Bridgewater Township council meeting to observe its final wrap-up concerning the Bridgewater-Raritan school budget increase. More about that in a subsequent blog post.

Our daughter, Denise, originally pointed us to Quindlen who, when I first read her in Newsweek, turned me off because of what I thought was a one-sided treatment of an issue. That wasn’t smart of me. Quindlen is a writer who knows how to assemble words to persuasively express an idea. She is imminently worthy of your time.

Check out her column about the late David Halberstam in the May 14, 2007 issue of Newsweek at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18507630/site/newsweek/. In a tribute to Halberstam, she accurately and humbly portrays the state of journalism today – what it is and what it could be. Quindlen feels that we don’t get “great journalism” merely because the media “decide to put money into serious coverage of important issues.” We get it she says, “because there exists a class of people who have intelligent curiosity written into their DNA, who will never stop learning and telling.” Sounds like integrity to me. Don’t we all know about those big name columnists and writers who have bitten the dust because of cheating, fabricating and lying!

In an examination of herself and of her colleagues, she states that, “When we feel full of ourselves, we like to say that journalism is a public trust.” She concludes, “Sometimes it is even true.” Ouch! Journalism isn’t the only profession that occasionally likes to wrap itself in hubris.