Tributes are pouring in for legendary journalist, Tim Russert, who died today (13 June 2008).Here is one of his great sayings about America in an American Profile (2006) by Beverly Keeler:
Russert says he feels blessed to have enjoyed a career that’s allowed him to meet the pope, interview presidents and learn so much about so many subjects. "My dad’s favorite expression is, ‘What a country!’"
Russert says. "I look back to see the house I was born in and my dad quit school in tenth grade. The fact that the son of a truck driver and garbage man is now the moderator of Meet the Press, that’s everything you want to know about who we are as a people, society and a country. It’s not very complicated to know me. What you see is who I am. I am just someone who grew up in an extremely traditional lower middle-class upbringing and celebrates the uniqueness of this country every day.
"It can’t happen anywhere else," he says, then pauses. "It doesn’t happen anywhere else."
Dr Geoff Pound
Image: Tim Russert giving the 2000 Commencement address at Niagara University.