PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

COMMENTARY THE PASSING OF SARGENT SHRIVER

We live in a time when nothing is possible by way of helping the less fortunate. So much money was spent early on to try to prematurely drag the country out of the credit collapse of 2008 that, now, we really are running on empty. Who could imagine starting a single new program now to help the poor out of poverty or feed children before school time? The Republicans in the House of Representatives announced their priorities this week and they start and end with cutting federal spending, period.

Aside from the immediate budget woes, what is the source of this lack of concern for anyone but ourselves and our own  wallets? I believe Sargent Shriver was right throughout his very productive life: Americans are generous and thoughtful people who believe, or can be convinced, that a greater degree of social justice and fairness is possible. Instead, the appeals now are aimed solely had painting the government as evil. Those who are making less and working harder these days are now encouraged to be fearful that paying for anything will impact them the most. Those who make more than enough, and the giant corporations, want to stave off any increases in taxes to keep the good times rolling. In the process, we are losing our soul as a nation. The welfare state is not a model anyone endorses, but the don't-give-a-damn state is the looming alternative. If people of the caliber and thoughtfulness of Sargent Shriver were still in government, this would never be allowed to take place.

I want to add a personal note. While I was still a high school student and working part time for a local radio station in Reading, Pa., I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Shriver. I can't imagine what he must have thought seeing someone looking like a Cub Scout coming up with a microphone to ask him questions, but he was gracious enough to take the questions seriously in what was only the second time I had ever interviewed anyone. I was very thankful not be laughed at or ignored, but then I was only 17 at the time and expected to be treated like an adult by acting like one.

In recent years, my wife and I have had the pleasure of attending the Best Buddies Ball to support the special Olympics. The generosity of Shriver's on those occasions could not have been more evident. They opened their home outside Washington, DC, once a year for the event, allowing strangers and friends to wander through the house and into a gigantic tent outside where the ball was held. How many people far past retirement age are willing to have eight or nine hundred people come through their house once a year and to greet them all warmly?

I went to the Balls first as a reporter and, later, as a (donating) guest. The events were anything but ordinary, having gathered people from across the U.S. in common cause and good fun. Shriver and his sons had a knack for attracting high quality people interested in public service and events in the world.   I took a few pictures of Sargent Shriver at those events as he neared his 90th birthday. Looking back through the pictures, it is hard to find one where he was not either smiling broadly or engaged in some hearty, open mouth laughter, lighting up the room around him. He was not only a man of good works and dedication, but one who seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself and his life, almost every moment of it.

Doug Terry 1.22.11

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