Witnessing History

I love my job.  I love it so much that I could write a whole separate blog, just about that.
Well, at least I could think about writing another blog. In reality, there's no way I could keep up with another blog.

Some of you have written me and asked for more work stuff.  So, here you go.  I have had some GREAT adventures lately!

My number one favorite thing about my job is that it gives me the opportunity to witness history with my own eyes.  It is a privilege and a joy to be one of the people in between the viewers and the actual history happening.

It's amazing.  I will have lots of great stories to tell my grandchildren one day, if I remember them.  If not, maybe they can read this blog!

Thursday was one of theses historical days.
You may have heard there was a little decision coming out of the Supreme Court.

I got there pretty early.  Around 7:30am.  Not a lot going on at that point, just a bunch of media setting up (including us).  Major media events in DC like this are fun, because I see a lot of my media friends who are usually spread out - covering Capitol Hill, the White House, or the campaign trail - all in one place.  It's like an NCC all church gathering - all campuses are represented.

So, things were pretty quiet until the belly dancers showed up.  Because I want you to experience this yourself, and because you probably didn't see this on the news, here you go:


I love the scene of people with signs from different positions, side by side.  I even love people arguing with each other about who is right.  I love this country.  I love that we are generally civilized enough to debate each other without shooting guns into the air in a crowd.

As we got closer to 10:00am, when the decision was supposed to come down, the crowd got significantly larger.

There were so many people outside the Court that I wasn't able to use my phone (for calls, texts, emails or searching the internet) for like four hours.  No one had service.  When the decision came down, there was mass confusion. What was decided? It was struck down? It was 5-4? No, it was upheld? It was 6-3.  So much confusion, and few copies of the actual ruling were handed out, so I started asking sources who were there what they knew, and tried to piece together exactly what happened.  I needed to get some interviews, but I needed to know what happened so I didn't look like an idiot asking questions!

I couldn't watch TV, obviously.  So, I just walked over to where they were making it, and listened.

Thank God for ears.

Armed with the information I needed (and I did eventually get a hold of a copy of the ruling that oh, by the way, I had to read like 4 times before I really understood it.  My one Jurisprudence class from college was used to the max.

We gathered some interviews. Then my correspondent, David Brody, met us out there, did a few more interviews, an epic standup in the middle of the crowd, and we stuffed into a cab and headed back to the bureau to put our story together.

And when I got home I took a really long shower and crashed.

On days like this, I don't have time to process my own feelings on the actual history that has happened, because I'm super busy in "work" mode, just trying to get the facts about the story, and make sure our viewers understand what happened.

When I got home, and watched this story on the network evening newscasts, I thought to myself, "I can't believe I was there."  It never gets old.

And no, I will not be sharing my personal feelings/thoughts/analysis on this. I like my job and value my reputation as a fair journalist. When I retire, I will vent.