I miss Tim Russert

I really miss Tim Russert this election seasion. I loved seeing his pure enthusiasm for his job, and the whole democratic process. Now as we're in the mist of challenging times, I REALLY miss him. Even though Tim seemed to be an ardent liberal, this conservative still liked his line questioning and loved how giddy he was showing us all his white board, or his maps. I feel bad for that guy that NBC has now. He's a pollster or something and just doesn't have the personality that Tim did.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tim at a bar once in Boston in the fall of 2001, just after that horrible day. I was at a table and noticed him, having a beer milling about at the bar. I sent my then-boyfriend out to get a camera and we went up and introduced ourselves and told him how much we enjoyed his show. He seemed as thrilled at our compliment as a novice might be when someone said he or she did something right. I was impressed to see how humble this great man was.

I was even at a luncheon yesterday when one of the ladies at the table mentioned how much she missed him. I guess I'm not the only one!

Godspeed Tim!

Noisy Philanthropy

Paul Newman died this weekend, and that makes me recall a conversation my friend Beth once had with him. Beth was a conference organizer and she was responsible for getting speakers to come to her event about philanthropy. Beth is an excellent researcher and found out that Newman's Own is a highly philanthropic company so she called them to see if anyone would come speak.

She got a gentleman on the phone who was very senior but did not want to speak at her conference, but he said that Paul was right there if she wanted to talk to him. Of course she said yes and the phone was handed over to the Academy Award winner himself. Beth asked him if he would come to speak at her conference and he said "No" that he didn't believe in "noisy philanthropy."

Paul's term, Noisy Philanthropy has stuck with me over the years, especially when I see all these Omaha society ladies on every committee, every league, every guild just to have their name added to the list or get asked to be on something better. Nothing bugs me more than seeing people who just add their name and send in their check for $30.00 and not really care about a cause.

I guess it's not a bad thing for causes to take people's money if they want to give it, but somehow, to me, it's just more fulfilling to see people active in causes who truly care about children's theater, or love art, or want to make their kid's school a better place rather than doing something because it's the cool thing to do.