The worthy people

I couldn’t let the week end on the sad story of the elephant and the dog, and, fortunately, CBS News bailed me out by providing some good news. On The Road, the series that Charles Kuralt started, is back.

CBS announced that the series will return during tonight’s CBS Evening News, under the wing of reporter Steve Hartman, who is the only current TV reporter who could fill Kuralt’s shoes (and he’s the one who originally reported the elephant/dog story).

The New York Times writes…

Mr. Kuralt “produced big-hearted essays on topics others thought tiny,” The New York Times wrote when he died in 1997. “He reported on horse-traders and a 93-year-old brickmaker, on the wonders of nature and the nature of other wonders, like the sharecropper in Mississippi who put nine children through college or the 103-year-old entertainer who performed at nursing homes.”

We old-timers have our favorites. Mine is the man who just stood on the corner and waved to people.

On the Road is pretty much what got me interested in the news business. Kuralt’s reports were the ones I remembered. I often wondered why they were at the end of Walter Cronkite’s newscasts and not at the beginning.

It would be many years later that I would come to understand — by listening to public radio, mostly — that the news does you no good at all, if it leaves you with nothing but despair.

A guy waving by the side of the road isn’t more important than any of the well-documented crises, but it’ll take whatever a guy waving by the side of the road has in his heart and his head to solve them.

All Things Considered host Tom Crann relayed the news about On The Road’s return after we recorded a segment on his show tonight about the People You Should Meet series on News Cut, the biggest challenge of which is convincing people that people who “don’t think they’re worthy” of attention are worthy of attention.

I’d love to hear more about the people you think other people should meet. Don’t be shy.