Left In His Wake

In South Buffalo, most wakes are Irish wakes. Lines form at the funeral home. Just enough laughter mixes with the tears and wonder of a life lost. Glasses are raised at night, often earlier.

As the major news networks canonized Tim Russert following his sudden passing, I feared the man's true meaning would be washed away in whatever earnest efforts were made to hold a broadcast version of a South Buffalo wake. That's usually how it works when media celebrities leave us. The ad nauseum reflections of every other media celebrity can only dull the record.

Russert's passing affected me like no death outside my family. Never met the man, but he did come from the same part of the world my family had. As the lead national embassador for my hometown, Russert had, in the minds of proud Buffalonians, become the standard bearer for all that natives of the Queen City aspired to be; certainly those who believed in his "keep your nose to the grindstone and remember where you came from" outlook.

He was as trustworthy a journalist as the medium in which he worked gives us. And in a world where the gatekeeper holds an even more crucial role, Russert rose to be a most reliable guide.

One of the parks dedicated in his name in West Seneca, the inner-ring suburb of Buffalo where Russert and his family lived, sits around the corner from the homes of my grandmother and aunts. A candlelight vigil there Sunday brought people together. They mourned the loss of someone who taught them politics and represented them in every big interview. Little Russ was the example of what could be; prominence, faith, good nature, all backed by a strong family, hard work and smarts.

As I searched for the reason why word of his death made me crouch on my back deck Friday as if I'd just taken a tire iron to the gut, it came to me that, in his passion for the work and his love of home and family, he had echoed the things that are so easily lost, even discarded by the industry and sadly, by a growing culture evolving around us. Things I'd always valued and fight every day to hold up for my family.

The sorts of things you make small talk about at an Irish wake in South Buffalo.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2008/06/lessons-of-the.html