Former Grand Rapids Mayor Lyman Parks dead at the age of 92.

I was a rookie reporter here at TV-8 when Lyman Parks was Mayor of Grand Rapids.  The fact that he was also a minister was not lost on me nor this community.  It’s interesting to note, nearly four decades later, we have another man of the cloth holding the same seat of power in Grand Rapids, George Heartwell.

I always thought Rev. Parks was a man for his time in this city.  Grand Rapids, like so many other urban areas in this nation, was emerging from the ravages of racism and riots.  Being black, but equally as important, being a holy man, Rev. Parks felt a calling to bridge the great divide that separated blacks from whites, the inner city from the suburbs, the have nots from the haves.

If you knew him, observed him from a distance, or watched him up close in action, you witnessed his dignity and pose.  Characteristic of a minister, there was a poeticism in the way he spoke and certainly a spirituality in his approach.

To me, he seemed like a man of conviction not confrontation… reconciliation not reparation.  He had a vision and a voice and he used them both to help begin the rebuilding of this city through brick and mortar as well as through human discourse and relationships.

The first black Mayor of Grand Rapids paid a visit to one of the wealthiest white men of Ada, Richard DeVos,  and that began a conversation and a relationship that led to a life-long renewal of a city. 

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, Rev. Lyman Parks shattered a myth, an erroneous perception of who a black man was and what he could accomplish.  In his high profile position as leader of Michigan’s second largest city, Mayor Parks could go where other blacks had no access and he could chisel cracks in the great divide.

May his memory be eternal.

We just witnessed broadcast television history.  Our station, the first to go on the air in West Michigan, just marked another milestone.  In 1949, when we started broadcasting, it was with the analog signal.  Today, we just shut off that signal and from now on, we will broadcast in digital only.  From our end, at our transmitters, the switch went off without a hitch. 

In the photo to the left, I’m interviewing our Chief Engineer, Mike Laemers moments after the switch. See the screen by me…it’s snowy.  That’s what tv sets look like if owners did not take the steps to go digital.  The screen by Mike shows the digital signal.

Ten years ago, we became the first television station in the market to start broadcasting in High Definition.  We’ve been putting out a digital signal for a decade.  Now that is the only signal high-powered television stations in this country can broadcast in, so mandated by federal law.  The old analog channels don’t die.  They’re going to be auctioned off and will wind up being used by emergency personnel and phone/cell/internet coompanies.  The feds will glean a good deal of money from the sale, money obviously this nation can use.

I just ran up to the engineering office at WOOD-TV-8.  The phones are ringing off the wall.  As soon as staff answers questions about why viewers aren’t seeing a picture on their screen, the next call comes in.

We have a toll-free number (1-877-FYI ASK8) and viewers are leaving  messages with questions.  We have engineers retrieving those messages and calling back to problem-solve.

I overheard our Chief Engineer, Mike Laemers, talk a viewer through the transition from analog to digital.  When the viewer pulled in our signal and saw something on the screen, Laemers commented, “Isn’t that great?  Isn’t it wonderful, digital?”  The viewer responded that the channel was going to stay right on WOOD-TV- 8 through the Red Wings Game tonight and wouldn’t let anybody change it.  That game begins at 8pm, by the way.  We’ll all be watching too, and we’ll undoubtedly have a late 11pm newscast.

For the Red Wings game, our crews will be Live on the ice recording all the action.  My co-anchor Brian Sterling will be there as well as one of our sports anchors, Larry Figurski.  That will be great to see… tune in for 24-Hour News 8 at 5 and 6 and 10 and then stay with the game through the end.  At 11ish, 11:30ish, we’ll have great highlights, interviews, hoopla, reaction.  Here’s to a RED WINGS WIN.  STANLEY CUP, HERE THEY COME.  And now, everyone will be able to watch it in DIGITAL T.V.  ENJOY!

It’s not anchoring.  It’s not tracking down the story and convincing someone to talk to us. It’s not even the deadlines we face all day and all night to get it first, get it right, and get it on the air and the web.

The hardest part of broadcasting and webcasting news is not giving our opinion; not revealing our take on things; not showing our bias; not advocating.

There are only a couple instances  in our newscasts and webcasts when it’s okay, it’s safe to let you know where we stand, how we feel, what we’re thinking. .. the only acceptable time to show our hand.

Have you guessed yet which times that would be when we would be beyond reproach?  When we ourselves, or you our viewers and readers, would give us a pass to let our guard down?

Yeah, you’re right.  When we’re rooting for the hometown team.  Like the Red Wings in their quest for the Stanley Cup. Now that’s a safe bet.  And another safe bet, of course, when we push hard and pull together to help people in need in this community.  Like we all did for Christmas in May when we collected tons and tons of items to give away to families who don’t have the money to buy them.

Those are the rare instances when we can show on air and on the web a side of ourselves that otherwise we would keep under wraps.  And that’s as it should be.

It’s always so exciting being in the newsroom when news is breaking, elections are ending, storms are brewing, or big games are being played.  Tonight, is one of those nights with the Red Wings trying to cinch the Stanley Cup Finals.

I of course want my hometown team to win.  And it would have been nice to see that happen this evening,  BUT…

If the truth be known, I love the suspense of taking it to the very end.  It’s no small matter that the game is playing out on our channel, WOOD-TV-8/NBC.  That certainly helps deliver a great audience to our newscast, thank you very much.  And now the Wings are taking it to game 7 and home to Detroit… we get another good night of television entertainment, another good night of ratings as viewers tune in to watch, and another suspenseful nail-biter.

It’s fun.  And I’ll be watching again Friday night while helping to write and edit the news, anchoring and getting the score fed through my earpiece while I’m on the air.

Go Wings… see you Friday night at 8pm doing what you do best…WINNING!

2009…the New Year.  Why does this one feel so different?

Every New Year means hope and plans for a brighter future.  But not this one.  This one is evoking fear:  fear for your job; fear your life savings will be worthless;  fear things will get worse before they get better.

That is not the way to usher in the New Year.  And there is no way anyone of us should live with fear…DEFINITELY NOT 365 DAYS OF IT.

Fear is paralyzing.  Anyone (including yourself) who puts fear in you is trying to freeze you on the spot, cripple you into inaction or wrong action. 

I’ve watched the newsreels from March 1933, when President Franklin Roosevelt, in his first inaugural address, admonished this nation, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  The United States was deep into the Depression then, much like many people fear we are now.

What we can’t do is go into a mental or emotional depression.  We need our wits about us.  We need to imagine how things can be and then we need to do what it takes to get us there.  If it means change, so be it.  If it means reinventing ourselves, let’s do it.  Who ever likes stagnation?  You know what happens to water when it stagnates.  Neither you nor I would want to wade in it.  We want to be a part of moving waters, of new trends and ideas, new pools of thought and innovation.  That’s what makes things new again.  That’s the promise of the New Year.

My husband was just talking to me about the lyrics and meaning of Auld Lang Syne.  In 1788, The Scottish poet, Robert Burns, penned what has become the anthem of the New Year:  ”Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?  Should old acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne?”  It’s a question, not a statement.  Of course we shouldn’t forget old friends and old times but we can’t lose ourselves in the long long ago. 

One of my younger WOOD-TV-8 colleagues asked me, “Suzi, how did you do your job before computers?”  I told him we did it, we got the stories and all the information, but just not as fast as we can today.  As I write this, the newsroom around me is in flux.  Everything and everyone is being reshuffled, refitted to meet the new demands of a New Year of change and challenge.  The interesting thing about it is we’re being retrained to do each other’s jobs as well as our own.  Guess what.  In auld lang syne, in the long long ago, in the early days of my broadcasting career, that’s exactly what we did, several jobs.  It’s back to the future for me, a place of old acquaintance.

Happy New Year!!!

My youngest child, a sophomore in college now, has always said Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday.  I couldn’t understand that before, because as a kid, I couldn’t wait for the next Christmas, counting the days from December 26th on.  But as an empty nester,  I now see what my son sees. 

I see all four of my children coming home, coming together for the first time since summer vacation, their first break from the routine that began when school started up in August.  My kids are in colleges and law school and working fulltime.  They have always been close siblings and they look forward to seeing each other as much as Mom and Dad look forward to seeing them.

And that’s it.  That’s the holiday.  Getting together.  Joining with family and friends, like the first Thanksgiving, sharing what you bring to the table and giving thanks for whatever it is you have. 

Over the years, I’ve usually worked Thanksgiving night.  Up until this year, the holiday fell during television ratings and the audience was usually captive (or comatose) on the couch after a day of eating and football and did I say eating?  After a wonderful celebration with family and friends, I would come into work with trepidation, anticipating awful news.  It seems like some of the worst news I’ve ever reported broke on Thanksgiving night.  One story in particular still haunts me:  After Thanksgiving dinner, a father in West Michigan drove his two young children to his place of work, a factory foundry, opened the door of one of the furnances, threw them in and then left.  Unimaginable.  Absolutely unimaginable.

I’ve told my dear friend, with whom we celebrate Thanksgiving, that the holiday brings me peace and solemnity on what is often a bleak and austere day in November.   Even surrounded by loved ones, amidst the hustle and bustle of getting the food on the table and coaxing the Lions to a win (not), I find calm in the day. 

Most experts will tell you,  calm is not what is always summoned on a holiday like Thanksgiving.  The pressure of families coming together in close quarters, strained relationships, stressful finances, and abundant imbibing often give way to explosive gatherings which too often lead to breaking news.

I’m taking Thanksgiving night off this year.  I’m savoring the calm I look forward to on the fourth Thursday of November.  And as I sit and watch 24-Hour News 8 from home, I’ll be thankful if there’s no awful breaking news to haunt me again.

Long time White House correspondent Helen Thomas returns to the White House Brady Press Briefing Room after a recent long illness in Washington, Nov. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Many of you may remember, Helen Thomas, the Dean of White House Correspondents, is my aunt.  She’s covered every president since John F. Kennedy and subjected each of them to the toughest questions of their political careers.  For the first time in her life, Aunt Helen took ill this spring.  In August, she turned 88, and before this illness, she had never been in the hospital.  Can you believe that?  You could if you understood her indomitable will and the fight that is in her.

Aunt Helen hadn’t been feeling well.  Unwisely, she did not address the issue.  She refused to be slowed down or have her life interrupted.  She had important business to do.  The same business she has been doing for 65-years.  The people’s business: ensuring their first amendment right, to her, the greatest of all their freedoms, the “right to know.”

But illness doesn’t know your business nor your rights.  It just attacks where it can, when it can.  It sidelined Aunt Helen like no President ever could.  Our family immediately kicked into action to oversee her medical care, preserve her independence and decision-making (for she demanded that), and do everything within our power and the grace of God to get her back on her feet and back to the most coveted job in journalism, the White House Beat.

I tell you all of this because God granted Aunt Helen her greatest wish.  She worked hard for it, fought with a death-grip determination to face down her illness and come back from it.  And she made it.  She recovered from an intestinal problem that’s proved fatal for many people her age.  That in itself is commendable.  It shocked many on her medical team, but not all.  It certainly didn’t shock us.  And it should not have surprised her colleagues when on Wednesday, she walked, I repeat, walked into the Press Briefing Room of the White House and sat in the chair that is reserved for her and her alone.  All through her illness, that was her goal: to walk under her own power, albeit with a friend’s arm to lean on, and return to her rightful place in the People’s House.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

And so, SHE’S BAAACK, feistier than ever, I kid you not.  Look out, Barack Obama.  Helen Thomas is on her own two feet, standing in wait, ready to take on President #10.  Good luck Mr. Obama, and way to go Aunt Helen.

Remember your first job? Maybe your second or third? Remember beginning day jitters? You’re thrilled you beat out the competition and scored the hire. Then when you show up for work, the thought crosses your mind, can I really do this? Do I really have what it takes?

Do you think Barack Obama and Michelle Obama feel that way right now? Certainly, voters asked themselves that about Obama while he was on the campaign trail. Now, that he’s elected, every step the Obamas take, every move they make, all eyes are on them. Looking. Wondering. What will they do and how will they do it?

It was well publicized that on Monday, November 10th, the Obamas would cross the great divide between political foes and join the Bushes at the President’s House, the White House, their soon-to-be house. It is tradition for the First Family to welcome the New Family into the fold. We saw the four of them outside the White House. Photos were taken of the two men in the Oval Office but then, everyone else went away and the two sat down for a private meeting, a private chat, perhaps private advice. The same course was followed for the two women as they went on a private tour of the inner sanctum of the People’s House.

Can you imagine what all four were thinking? The Bushes–that their days at the Big House are numbered, that their legacy is nearly history, and that their burden of leadership is waning by the hour. The Obamas–that their days at the Big House are just beginning, that their legacy is yet to be written, and that their burden of leadership is growing by the minute.

We always believed as we sought our new job and landed it, that confidence was nine/tenths the battle. It takes confidence to convince others we are worth the risk. It takes Monday jitters to convince ourselves we are ready for the challenge. And now it begins…

All night, we were on the air broadcasting results in the most historic election in the annals of America.  No matter how you voted, no matter who you supported, you couldn’t help but to be fully engaged in the oldest and most cherished of all the rights and privileges afforded Americans.  It was a right denied so many for so many years but on this night, no one could deny the unprecedented number of us who turned out to cast our ballots.

We all knew this election would be like none other.  We knew, before the last vote was counted,  a black man or a white woman would assume an office never before available to them.  Isn’t it something, what a difference 232 years make?

Some of you are absolutely jubilant tonight.  Some of you are inconsolably disappointed.  But all of us should take our cue from Senator John Mc Cain who spoke of how proud he was to have had the chance to run for President and how proud he was that America could bring itself to do something it had  not done before:  Elect an African American to the White House.  We should also take our cue from Senator Barack Obama who said he did not win everyone’s vote today but he wants to earn everyone’s support.  He wants to be President of all Americans and asked for our help.

Grace in defeat and grace in victory.  It’s something to watch, isn’t it?   No two people ran harder or longer or tougher.  In defeat, Mc Cain was Monday morning quarterbacking, acknowledging the loss and claiming the failure was all his doing.  In victory, Obama was Wednesday morning reality checking, acknowledging the win and admitting the success will not be all his doing.

So after all this time, Decision 2008 is finally over, and yet the hopes and dreams and expectations it brings are just beginning.

It’s after midnight.  The race is run and the judging begins.  How will you vote when you go to the polls?  That’s what all the candidates, each political party, the pundits and the pollsters have been trying to speculate, calculate, and guesstimate for months now. 

You hold the secret.  Some of you have revealed your hand… others have played it close to the vest.  All the experts think they know what you’re thinking.  Maybe they do.  Maybe they don’t. 

That’s the mystique of elections.  Politicos can question and survey, campaign and advertise, cajole, appease, convince and persuade.  But only you really know what works and what doesn’t; what sticks and what falls flat; what’s real and what rings hollow.

At WOODTV-8, we will watch all day as you flock to the precincts, flash your id, and follow your conscience when you sequester yourselves in the sanctity of that voting booth and cast your ballots.  It’s the single most important act an American can do.  It is what makes us Americans, and everytime we exercise our constitutional right, we hold democracy to its highest standard. 

By the next midnight, we could very well know who will be our new commander-in-chief.  Some of you will be elated.  Others will be dejected.  It is the price we pay to have a say.  Elections are a gamble.  Where there is victory there is defeat…where there are winners there are losers.  But it is never just the candidates who win or lose.   All the rest of us who dare to care have something on the line.  We all have a stake in Decision 2008.   We ran the race too.