I reached for the remote control and then hit “unmute” so that I could find out what was going on. I fell instantly into a state of disbelief and then immediately into a feeling of sadness as I tried to process the fact that Tim Russert had just died.

I had become dependent on his sense of objectivity in his pursuit of what was the truth and I just took for granted that I would turn on the TV set this Sunday morning and watch Tim ask the questions that I wanted the answers to, as always, on Meet the Press because -

that’s just what you’re supposed to be able to do on Sunday morning.

I liked Tim Russert and I like the idea of Tim Russert –

loving father, devoted husband, loyal son, passionate journalist, hard worker, integrity in action, fun loving and deeply appreciative always, of everything that he had. He liked what he liked and he knew who he was.

May God bless his family and friends as they grieve their tremendous loss, and may He cause many to be inspired to ponder –

the idea of Tim Russert.

“And now we have an Irish Catholic as president of the United States. The same kind of progress can be made by U.S. Negroes. There is no question about it that in the next 40 years a Negro can achieve the same position that my brother has.” Kennedy went on to say that “prejudice exists and probably will continue to exist… But we have tried to make progress and we are making progress… We are not going to accept the status quo.” – Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Washington Post, May 27, 1961

This past week we looked backward to celebrate the important contributions of Robert F. Kennedy and many were filled with a sense of nostalgia and courage. We glimpsed the future as we recognized Barack Obama as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States of America and many were filled with a sense of optimism and of pride.

We marvel as the past poetically collides with the future, providing our nations with such a stunning moment in time that I still have not been able to emotionally drink it all in. History and history making events are sharing center stage today in a way that allows for us to entertain the possibility of deferring to our better selves.

When we called my mother-in-law last Tuesday night, we expected that she would be privately celebrating. She was. It was a night that she never thought she would live long enough to see.

I listened, and beyond my usual polite and obligatory tendency, as Auguste’s mom shared with me that she remembered so vividly how, when Auguste was a very little boy, she would have to explain to him that in Florida little Black kids were not allowed to sit at the counter to eat their lunch. She reflected with sadness about how she used to have to tell her two year old “no” when he asked her if he could ride on the department store merry-go-round like other kids. He hadn’t noticed that the only kids riding the merry-go-round were White.

But on June 3rd 2008, just before 10:00 o’clock at night my mother-in-law found the resolve to finally set those lingering memories aside for the opportunity to celebrate a new and better day! She told us from the bed where she has been quietly reconciling the end of her life, that she has decided that she is “not going anywhere yet because I intend to see Barack Obama inaugurated as President of the United States of America”!

She never thought that she would ever see this day.

Robert Kennedy said that it would happen in forty years and while it might take forty eight, the lives of many have already been changed.

I read this quote by Frederick Douglas the other day:

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

As we move toward expanding and creating new things, as we endure the growing pains that we sometimes wish that we could avoid, as we challenge ourselves to continue to push the envelope to discover what lies beyond and to try when it would be much easier to simply maintain, his eloquence offers a welcome bit of confirmation that:

Change does not come without a fight!

What was and has been does not passively make way for the promise of what could be. It will cost to advance and you’ve got to be willing to pay the price.

Keep on. Keep on. Keep on.

…Tomorrow is just beyond the horizon.