Tim Russert, RIP (if you can with all the commotion)

I was in the doctor's office today when a woman announced into her cell phone, "Tim Russert is dead." She was hoping, I think, that everyone would turn and look at her with wide amazed eyes. I would die before giving her the satisfaction. Besides, the fact that Tim Russert was dead, while mildly surprising, is not something that affected my life in any way. I didn't know him. I had only seen him now and then on TV. I had no emotional attachment to him. He was just someone on TV, one of thousands.

I remember when John F. Kennedy died. Every one was so shocked, so blown away. People broke down in tears. That was another one I never could figure out. I didn't mourn Kennedy. I thought it was regrettable that the president of the United States could be killed so easily. But it didn't affect me personally. He wasn't my father. I had no emotional attachment to him.

I don't understand why people are so attached to personalities they see only on TV. I just checked the Drudge website. He is currently running eight stories on Russert's death and the reaction to it.

My god, he was 58, which is to say he was older than most people throughout history when they died. He accomplished a lot. By all appearances he had a good life. We are all going to die anyway. It's always surprising when we know, or think we know, drops dead on the job. But in fact it happens ever day. We just don't know their names.