Thank you for sharing Laura. A friend is so hard to lose. I have great admiration for journalists and writers of all types of content whether for themselves only or a public forum. We must continue to encourage the freedom to write what's in our minds. I love Rob's curiosity and wit to go find other "Baltimores."
4
Like most literate people, I guess, I know The Baltimore Sun only through "The Wire". David Simon has given it the feeling of a stubborn hold-out. "The Capital" was obviously one of those capitol city newspapers that punched above its weight.
So what is to be this man's legacy within the American news media? Is that it? An obit?
Mr Hiaasen's death has profound implications. This was an act of domestic political terrorism against the free press. Whatever the journalists in question did, I don't doubt they did it legally and in the course of a daily professional practice.
The terrorist involved might have any motivation from mental impairment to simple evil, that doesn't matter. What matters is that ordinary people in a major Western democracy were not free to go about their business without fear of murder.
In the other countries around the world where journalists are the subject of political assassination, it is usually the government supplying the weapons. In the United States, that isn't a problem for your average domestic terrorist.
At some level, as Lippman writes, we have to expect that Mr Hiaasen had given thought to the potential personal risks involved in reporting the truth without bias or agenda. But most human news stories are bad news about someone.
In a country where "mass shooting" is a common headline, those people writing it must have had all the more reason to contemplate angry retaliation from abusive emails on up.
What are you doing to stop this?
3
Sounded like a wonderful man. Why must they always take the good ones?
Another shooting with a bad ending. Have you noticed that shootings of this type have different endings in what some folks call "fly-over-country"? Out here where we cling to ...well... many folks will be able to finish that quote.
By different ending I am thinking about the Texas Church Shooting. Whacko bad guy. An ending that cost the county much less than this shooting will cost in Maryland.
At the time I wondered, "Why did no one shoot back?" Then I remembered... Oh yeah, this happened in Maryland.
It took me 2 hours and four different people to talk to in order to vote. It took me 24 minutes including driving time to purchase a shotgun.
8
Thank you for this moving tribute. Every time one of these horrible shootings occurs, and people who just happen to be going about their lives in the wrong place at the wrong time -- as dictated by the killer -- are murdered, we see the loss of so many individuals who add great value to their communities and families. They are, in fact, the backbone of our society: teachers, workers, parents, students, reporters. The killer is almost always a disturbed man who has already left a trail of distress and conflict in his wake, and who is aggressively anti-social. And yet, to whom have we given the power by enabling his access to high-powered weapons?
5
Your comment is heartfelt and true. However (and I say this gently) none of us are "people who just happen to be going about their lives in the wrong place at the wrong time." We are absolutely going about our lives in the right places at the right times. The killers are the ones who are out of place, out of time in our ordinary, precious days.
6
I knew of Rob's brother Carl and have read some of his work. Sadly, this is how I discovered Rob. I wish I had known and experienced his work prior to this, yet another American tragedy.
4
Lovely article Ms Lippman. A sad happening.
4
Thank you for informing me about this valued life I was not acquainted with. Wish I had been. People like Rob Hiaasen are the rare gem that make the rest of us look more worthy. His is clearly a profound loss to all, and part of his great legacy must be that you will keep his perspective on the world alive.
9
Lovely tribute.
8
So very, very sad! My sympathies!
9
People get angry at what’s written about them in the press, but libel laws are so pro-journalist now that the aggrieved has little recourse to the courts. Not justifying shootings, but maybe if it was easier to confront journalists in a legal setting, there might be less rage. Times vs. Sullivan effectively said disputes with the press cannot be settled in a courtroom unless you’re a cleaver litigant like Peter Thiel. But too much legal protection leaves journalists vulnerable to Wild West solutions when most other civil disputes can be settled calmly, before a judge.
Rick, you've obviously never written for publication. You're 100% wrong on this.
4
Without pretending to know cause and effect for sure, why are newspapers and other media not openly condemning Trump's role in explicitly and publicly encouraging bitter hatred toward reporters -- except Fox, his primary source of misinformation and home of his political mentors?
22
This severely deranged individual with a shotgun(the weapon Joe Biden suggested rather than an assault rifle) began his vendetta with the paper long before Trump was a political figure.
1
What you say maybe true, but it is Trump and his supporters which gave him the inspiration and courage to act on his hatred!!!
1
Thank you, Ms. Lippman, for a worthy tribute to Rob Hiaasen. I always looked forward to reading his stories and columns in The Capital. His quirky and sentimental observations of the world around him were often hilarious and usually touching, especially those about lost or stray pets. His empathy and compassion seemed boundless. I will miss him greatly.
Here is one of his stories I still remember from four years ago:
http://www.capitalgazette.com/lifestyle/ph-ac-cl-hiaasen-0817-20140817-c...
13
I just read it. A wonderful piece of journalism, especially the end.
4
Thanks, NRA/GOP. More lives lost, more Families destroyed, more Joy extinguished. Well done.
17
Another piece of solid, thoughtful work by Laura Lippman, Not mawkish, but truly heartfelt.
9
What are good people to do in a world going mad?
11
We all have hometown newspapers. If you don't already subscribe to one, please consider doing so now, in honor of Rob and the others murdered in Annapolis, and in honor of the work journalists do every day to keep us informed. Without a free and vigorous press, we will lose our Democracy. What a lovely tribute to Rob and all the others.
16
My compliments for Ms Lippman who wrote a beautiful piece. I was very touched by the comparison between the hight of Mr Hiaassen and his ability to never look down on anyone.
Recently, I watched the documentary of the New York Times, called the Fourth Estate. This documentary made my realize how much the free press is under attack in the United States.
Unfortunately the attacks are not only verbally anymore. These horrific events have put disgrace to the freedom of speech. I hope that no reporter is targeted and separated from his/her freedom of speech ever again.
19
Rest in peace.
4
To answer the question the author asks at the door to her childs school. We're not at all safe. Safety is now a politically charged construct used by the Right to create fear as a means to dominate and "infect" a weak mind.
Safety doesn't exist when a President uses his alleged control over it to threaten people. Be they everyday Joes and Janes, journalists, other politicians, or a company like Harley Davidson.
Safety should not be a tool used by politicians to threaten citizens or non-citizens, or travelers coming to the US. Personal safety should be a given, HUMAN RIGHT. Something that the US must guarantee to all no matter the "current environment", or the real or hyped-up feelings of angry white males.
Safety is a basic human right. That we've allowed to become a tool used by miscreants like Trump to drive dozens of wedges into our society and cleave off whole sections into becoming partisan, ideologically sick...and down right inhumane.
Safety is not something that we should let some wannabe King grant some of us, should he feel like it, as long as we stay off his radar.
Safety is ours as a basic Human Right.
We need to take it from the hands of those who wish to control it.
9
That an obvious anti social and violent man, with an actual conviction, could by the shotgun and kill 5 worthy human beings, is another moment of profound grief for our country. Thank you for writing about this person. At least we can cry over him and give him his proper respect. What a colossal waste. It is so disheartening to live in America.
14
Lisa, which party devotes itself to promoting anger and confrontations?
2
Only one in America: the GOP where tea party members yelled obscenities, suggested "second amendment remedies" and came armed to rallies. Dems suggest verbal confrontation but never violence.
This country has simply gone off the rails; and I'm not sure we will ever get it back on track.
It just seems that, time after time, when these massacres occur, absolutely nothing to prevent them gets done. The wave of grief at the loss of good men, women—and children—simply recedes into a catatonic state. I can only imagine the anger and frustration of the loved ones that the dead leave behind.
14
Mr. Burns, I agree. Will we ever get back on track?
Today I saw the documentary on Fred Rogers -- Mr. Rogers -- and was gobsmacked with sorrow over the deficits of graciousness, kindness and unhurried witnessing that characterize so much of society today. It's all sad.
3
A truthful tribute to the spirit of journalism. Keep on going, keep on digging, ask the question. Don't look back; something (or somebody) might be gaining on you, Satchel Paige said. Good on you, Laura Lippman.
11
Thank you Laura Lippman for telling us so much in a short column, thanks to Rob Hiaasen and the others pointlessly lost in Annapolis, and thanks to all journalists who dig deep to tell us what we need to know. You let us get to know our neighbors. You follow the money to expose corruption. You call out the lies of the powerful. We need you more than ever. Stay strong.
16
It is getting ridicules. I am sure Bob was a real nice guy and I don’t feel good about saying he made a mistake. If he was driving to work without wearing his seatbelt and was hit by an oncoming car everyone would think he was killed because he wasn’t wearing his seat belt. Ignoring that mass shootings are happening or expecting someone else to do something about it is not working. I do not like saying it but I believe we all have to take responsibility for our own lives because the government is not going to pass a law saying we all need to carry guns to protect ourselves. I do not want to see any more mass shootings on the news. Please find a way to protect yourself.
1
"Every time I press the buzzer to enter my 8-year-old daughter’s public school, I wonder how safe anyone is, anywhere."
Not very if you take into account the Nation's efforts to fight tobacco consumption - see below. Guns kill people but that's child's play compared to tobacco.
CDC FACT SHEET
If smoking continues at the current rate among U.S. youth, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today
1
There is little to speculate on until, and if, and forensic investigation is completed, and verified by an independent third party. This currently is a story. Opportunism is obviously present, but that is the nature of programs aimed at legislative coercion.
A wonderful, melancholy and haunting piece by a wonderful woman and author.
24
My heart is breaking for a country in which the innocent and the good are being murdered by the despicable. The very concept of freedom which has been such a corner stone of the nation's pride and strength has been turned on its head. These killings are not the price of freedom but the cost of accepting a sense of powerlessness, of not demanding a better and more noble path, of complaint and grief without personal responsibility and action.
45
The most fitting tribute to this man and his colleagues would be a year's subscription -- or more -- (sign up today) to your own local newspaper, whatever one that may be, wherever you may be.
The work of community newspapers is profoundly important. They reflect our lives back to us. Support them in honor of those who died doing this work. This would be the highest testament of all.
55
As a follow-up to this, anyone accessing the website for the Capital Gazette will find a page for subscription sign up.
1
Thank you Ms. Lippman, for sharing such moving thoughts on your very profound personal and untimely loss. I offer my condolences. Inevitably we lose friends, they will lose us; how wonderful for any of us to have such words to say of the other.
26
One of the most beautiful memories I have read. How missed are these people we never managed to meet. Our heats all break. My condolences for sharing this about a man no longer a stranger.
23
Laura Lipman, like Rob Hiaasen, shows us what a powerful story really is: using words effectively but even more looking at people with insight, understanding, affection and compassion.
Imagine if we were governed that way.
69
Let's start calling it what it is--mass murder. Too many talented,ordinary, beloved, loved, young, old, funny, serious lives have been stolen my murderers with weapons designed to kill people. This is not just a tragedy; it an abomination that need not have happened.
57
This is a lovely, well written tribute to an obviously loved man. Thank you for that. But I have to say that I believe our President has put a target on every news reporter's and writer's back with his incessant shouts of "Fake news" and his invective against all news organizations that don't pat him on the back. Our President needs to remember (or maybe he does) that there are millions of guns out and about in our nation, and millions of crazy people with grudges. Do you think he could tone down the volume and use his "bully pulpit" to bring some civility and discussion back to the people?
73
This column made me cry for a man I never knew. His goodness will long outlast the craziness that ended his life.
45
And that photo speaks as eloquently as Ms Lippman's words.
16
What a beautiful tribute. You helped me appreciate the character of this great editor.
19
Very nice article, thank you.
9
Rest in peace my man rest in peace Kirk Bloodsworth
9
At a time when the president of the United States derides journalists at every opportunity and refers to fact-based reporting as “fake news,” this is a fitting tribute to an honorable man and a journalist who respected his readers. Condolences to all who loved him from near or from afar.
42
When facts are called "fake news", and composers of "fake news" (originally, unconfirmed content composed as imitations of reporting style, by unqualified unknowns, with the purposes of arousing emotion, or manipulation) are praised by the leadership, there are no verifiable facts, and there is no truth.
5
I thought there'd be no words. But you came up with them.
36
There was a gun shooting at Cal Poly Pomona today. I believe a policeman was murdered. I'm on that campus twice a week. I guess I'm once removed from this killing. I'm not feeling great about America.
20
Interesting. But a good reporter would have actually stated Rob's height.
4
Do yourselves a favor and read this piece by Rob Hiaasen from last year, and you will have a better sense of the loss in my community: http://www.capitalgazette.com/lifestyle/ph-ac-cn-hiaasen-column-0219-201...
15
Wonderful piece- now THAT made me cry. Thank you.
5
I was in two community college classes with the gunman who killed four people at a gym in El Cajon (San Diego County) and then killed himself in 1993, before this type of shooting seemed commonplace. One of the classes was Creative Writing, and because the shooter had written a story recalling the McDonald’s massacre in nearby San Ysidro, classmates and the teacher were blamed for not realizing this 19 year old kid was planning his own massacre. TV crews camped outside our classroom, and our wonderful professor retired from teaching writing classes, worried she might second guess every story with a violent premise. The gunman hadn’t seemed dangerous, just awkward, but no more than many kids his age. The same questions we asked then are the ones I’ve heard over and over since: why didn’t we see it coming? How could we have prevented it? What triggered such an extreme action, what signs should we look for to stop the next potential mass shooting? It is a completely different feeling to have known the killer instead of one of the victims, to recall him as a normal, slightly goofy kid and not a monster... and to always wonder what signs you might have missed, whether there was any chance you could have made a difference that might have altered a shooter’s plans, saved lives, kept him from that extreme point of anger or isolation or emptiness that drove him to such a violent, tragic action. We all mourn the victims, but connecting with the killer is especially disconcerting...
13
Thank you for putting a human face on the tragedy at the Capitol Gazette- he sounds like he was a wonderful man and reporter the world is less without him and his peers.
17
What a vivid, eloquent tribute to Mr. Hiaasen. Of course, I never knew him, but now I feel like I did. The cruelty and insanity leaves me almost speechless, but with warm, spare words, you said it all : "I wonder how safe anyone is, anywhere."
18
You've honored your friend very well here. If he hadn't been killed in a mass shooting, your readers would never have been made aware of this wonderful man's existence.
Most gun violence is not so newsworthy because only one victim is involved. In America, for every innocent person saved by guns in the hands of civilians probably 20 are lost.
America is inflicted with a culture that thinks with its guts instead of its brains and this will not change as long as very powerful people encourage this tendency in order to divide and conquer us.
Human rights are sacrificed for gun rights. The Koch brothers contribute heavily to the NRA to reduce human rights- they don't care about guns.
21
Thank you for this elegant tribute to a wonderful man struck down by incomprehensible violence.
20
What a beautiful essay about a quietly extraordinary man. Someone who looked beyond himself to see and share the wonders of this world. Such a terrible loss.
22
A bittersweet collection of memories of a man bursting with life and ideas, in sharp contrast to the twisted fiend who took Mr Hiaasen's life in a matter of seconds.
The apparent banality of such an atrocity in contemporary America now makes the proposition of certain US school districts to equip schoolchildren with armoured backpacks an act of intelligent foresight, alas. May my dark forebodings prove wrong.
12
I always worry about the journalists...aren't they scared for their lives? It's become a very dangerous occupation...since Trump started calling them "the enemy of the people."
20
another day in America where people are routinely
gunned down in school, at work or at a concert.
It's become so common, hardly any shock left.
We are becoming a lawless state like Afghanistan or Yemen. Another terrible tragedy ....
12
Lots of anger out there and it is sad. Anger and fear keep people in cages. America is not about to confront anger and fear, Americans only care about money.
5
This is really beautiful, thank you
7
Thank you for a beautiful tribute to an obviously good man. The nation continues to mourn these senseless tragedies.
40
Thank you for this extraordinary tribute to Rob Hiasson. It seems to me his work ought to be the subject of a college level journalism course. The tradition of well crafted substantive writing can never be taught enough, even to those not choosing to be journalists. You have written a beautiful prayer to his legacy, may it live beyond his years.
46
What a wonderful man Rob must have been! Thanks for sharing your warm memories. It is as if we all got to know him a little bit!
33
I am touched by your words. Thank you for sharing your perspective on this tragedy.
39
Those local newspapers are the lifeblood of communities. And writers like Mr Hiassen and the others who were killed are the lifeblood of those papers.
Thank you for this wonderful tribute to him.
46
I just might volunteer to leave this world if I knew that someone would write about me with such grace and warmth (smile). Wonderful piece, Laura
23
Laura, thank-you for giving us more delightful stories of Rob.
When you say you are shocked about how shocked you are, in a sense this is a healthy sign--we must never lose our humanity in the current craziness
we are living through.
I'm sorry (and angry) this tragedy will cause many people such deep pain.
63
A lovely piece, thank you for sharing your memories.
27
There is no making sense of this...that a gifted writer, with an endless smile and a genuine gaze from blue eyes...that he is gone. Ms. Lippmann, and to all those intimately touched by this tragedy, no words suffice. Godspeed.
65
Such a loss to the community and the world, which needs more empathetic, thoughtful people to connect us to one another. Thank you for celebrating him.
40
Thank you for such a lovely tribute, wish I had met him. Will we ever be safe anywhere in this country?
28
A lovely tribute. Thank you for writing this.
51
Thank you so much for making us feel like we just met Rob. It would be another tragedy if he were remembered only for how much died, instead of for the marvels of who he was and all he accomplished.
86
Well said.
5
This was awful. Those killed and wounded did nothing to deserve this.
However, we must also notice that this was a long time coming. There were many opportunities to defuse this thing before it got to this, over a period of years.
The shooter was openly abusive for years to his internet victims and to the reporters who'd covered this. He'd been to court about this in his own unsuccessful lawsuit. His nature and his fury were neither of them surprises.
So how did it get this far? This is a wake up call to have ways to intervene long before it goes all active shooter.
Guns? It should never have come to that. Take away the guns, and this guy would have found a way. He was a bomb himself. He had to be defused, and nobody considered that to be their responsibility or within their power.
What can we do about these bomb-like individuals before they detonate, in whatever way? They drive a car into a crowd, or set bombs, or shoot people, or something else. We've seen all of that recently.
We did away with our old (defective) mental health care system of involuntary commitment. Our new system is not really much of a system at all. We need to revisit this, to provide protections both ways, not just for those who might have mental health needs. They have victims too.
35
We have the constitutional right to walk our streets, send our kids to school, and worship, without being killed. Guns are out biggest killer. The argument that the killer would use another means is specious. By a huge margin guns are the weapon choice in homicides in this country.
5
Too much focus on just one tool will leave us with a very incomplete remedy, even if it succeeds, which it is not so far.
Better to get the more complete answer for which there is less opposition anyway.
sorry, but it's guns first. The other questions can wait.
1
SAD.
And, yes, these shootings have absolutely become "normalized" as my Millennial son tells me.
17
Nice piece. He would raise a glass.
20
Unfortunately I am removed by one,
by two mass shootings (but the first doesn't count, since three people were killed, not including the gunman. After the second, my thoughts changed from "Will this happen to me?" to "When will this happen to me?" From Colorado.
30
Rob Hiaasen could really write. He didn't have to sell progressivism or propagandize the unread to hate the week's assigned politician, but wrote real essays from his heart.
I suggest we go to the Baltimore Sun to bask in his style of writing that will stick with you longer than the ten-a-day anger bombs from, say, WaPo or the NYT.
12
I liked Rob too, but please: let's not pretend his steam-of-conscousness writing addressed the important issues of today or were non-offensive to all readers.
He did features. Did them well.
But in the end, he missed the big story and his sweet ramblings are all he left behind.
Gravitas, people.
2
Bob's and others' essays point out the hidden gems of daily life. When you ignore the little things to devote yourself to only what the media insists your read - and then think -you cheapen life and its possibilities.
1
Thank you for writing this.
24
So sorry for your loss. And for all our losses.
50
Yes, removed by one or two. I attended a woman for prenatal care today that survived being shot in the Las Vegas massacre. How can we go on like this, allowing crazy, angry, unstable people free access to lethal weapons?
8
Thank you for shedding more light on the kind of person he was. I grew up just outside of Annapolis, and the Capital was my hometown paper. My heart breaks for all those affected by this senseless act.
38
But see that is the thing - we all are affected by this senseless act. We lost our fellow Americans, again, to gun violence. As the article posits - it's no longer "if" - the worry is "when." Employers in NYC are holding "active shooter" classes along with fire safety. Until we Every single loss is a loss for all of us. Rest in peace.
9
I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Rob Hiaasen, but I felt I got to know him from Lippman’s fine portrait – it also felt like the portrait of many of the reporters I met when I visited my mother in the newsroom where she worked as a reporter for our small town paper. Her advice was, “You have to remember two things if you work on a newspaper. Always have a pencil with you and always tell the truth.”
98
Really lovely piece about the sort of reporter I admire: straightforward and empathetic. Heaven knows we cannot afford to lose any, especially now, with his skills and honor. Thank you, Ms Lippmann, and my condolences to you and to all who loved Rob Hiassen. His loss will be felt for a long time.
80
I'm 6'3", 230 lbs and I'm crying my eyes out. I hope you're happy Ms. Lippman and Mr. Hiaasen, you've brought to life a man I never knew and made me miss him.
129
Rick Gage, my heartfelt thanks for bringing to light the essence and sadness of how very important it is to know those who lose their lives so senselessly. Too often these tragedies speak in statistical numbers, of course, that is important, however, knowing the attributes those lost make in their time on this earth, is equally or more so, the heart of these tragedies.
21
Phil Davis, the reporter who survived the shooting, is the son of an old friend. He and my kids used to play together. I haven't seen him in years, but recall the nice kid he always was. Horrific to think he came so close to dying in a mass shooting, and who knows how the trauma will affect him. This madness must stop! Vote in November! Our lives really do depend on it!
32
The signs are clear and have been for some time.
We are living under a state of siege, only minutes away from an irrational and untimely death caused by some disgruntled individual with an axe to grind who has free access to firearms.
I did not know Mr. Hiasssen or any of the others recently killed the Capital Gazette, but then again I didn't know anyone at Sandy Hook, or Columbine, or the Pulse Night Club, or the Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charlson, South Carolina, but I still think of them.
And the shootings continue. And the list still grows longer.
May they all find peace.
71
Good people die when others decide to carry their guns. I am sorry our national sickness chewed up another. Sorry for his family and friends, and sorry for us all. Any man's death diminishes me.
I believe we can prevent some of these acts, with strong gun control. But I also believe that we have left action for so late that we won't make as much of a dent in the numbers. The idea is in the ether now, ready to be picked up by anyone who has their antenna tuned on that wavelength.
We can disarm some people; we can remove lethal rapid action, high velocity rifles from the playing field. Maybe reduce the toll a bit. But handguns, shotguns, deer rifles will always exist. And now the idea that resolution of your problems, when no other answer will satisfy you, to charge in and shoot up the place is part of the fabric of America.
But I am so fed up with a government that let it get to this point.
17
In my long-ago newspaper career, I met and worked beside reporters like Rob Hiaasen. They found the goodness in just about everyone, or at the very least a compelling narrative of a person’s life journey. I tried to model my nose for news to this standard, and wrote some decent articles in my time.
The thing is, to pull off the kind or journalist Rob surely was, you had to be, at your core, optimistic about the human condition. You couldn’t be a cynic, and survive as a reporter; you had to perceive good and right in people.
It’s that eye that has now gone missing in our suspicious, dark world. And it is incredibly ironic that Rob Hiaasen was taken away from his readers and his friends and family at just the time we need him the most.
23
Thank you, Laura, for a moving, clear-eyed, compassionate tribute to this wonderful man. I, too, knew him, and though I'm heartened to read commemorations such as this, I'm also infuriated. At the waste, at the horror, at the vileness of the crime, and at the irresponsibility of our so-called leaders, who obviously don't give a toss.
With their mealy-mouthed, fatuous expressions of "thoughts and prayers" -- every time, every time, after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Orlando, after Parkland, after so many others past and so many yet to come -- they are nearly as criminal as the lunatics who pull the trigger. They put wishes in my mind I dare not type.
Rob may have been an optimist, good-hearted soul that he was. But I bet even he would've seen that nothing in this country will change with regard to guns. Not in my lifetime.
132
Another heartbreaking and tragically common occurrence in our society. No other "civilized" country is awash in millions of guns as we Americans are. The rest of the world is baffled. We have become numb to the horror. Americans are killed in schools, in churches, in newsrooms, in playgrounds, in movie theaters, etc. Just another day in the life of Americans. Mass murders becoming commonplace. I am saddened by the unnecessary, brutal death of "a reporter's reporter." What a decent man. What a loss. I am tired of the usual "Our thoughts and prayers" etc...from the President, members of Congress...those who have the power to stop the horror and do nothing but mouth platitudes.
20
Respecting Jean's sentiment, I do not buy the charge of "no other country . . ."
Mexicans are right now butchering about 150 of their fellow citizens in the brief course of the ongoing election campaign.
Hardly being even mentioned in the NYT does not mean this is not happening.
1
I worked with Gerald Fischman and John McNamara, two of the victims, at two different newspapers, including The Capital. I left Annapolis about 15 years ago and last saw Gerald at a reunion for the other paper maybe four years ago. The thing about Gerald, whom I knew better than John, was he always popped up in conversations with other former colleagues, usually involving a shake of the head and a wry smile or more likely a guffaw. Why? Because Gerald was one of the weirdest, most insightful people we'd ever known. He didn't say much, but when he spoke it was like the old E.F. Hutton commercials where everyone gets silent to hear the words of wisdom: sometimes bitingly witty, often incisive, always interesting. Earth is less interesting today without his presence. Those who knew him -- all the victims -- are still shocked. They will be dearly missed.
39
Thank you so much, Ms. Lippman. I sat across from Rob in the features department of The Palm Beach Post back in the late 1980s and early '90s, until he left for The Baltimore Sun. The man you describe is the man I knew. His brother got the sharp, satiric wit, and Rob got the sweetness. He had all the qualities of a fine reporter, but he also had all the qualities of a fine human being. Yes, he was soft-spoken, but he was not shy. When a new employee arrived, Rob would have been among the first to say hello and make them feel welcome.
30