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Peter Jennings: 1938-2005

Throughout my life, there have been three constants regarding the news‚ÄîPeter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. I have vague recollections of Walter Cronkite, but none of Huntley and Brinkley as nightly news anchors. So when I heard that there’d be some changes at the networks, there was a small sense of loss. Four months ago, I made it a point to see Peter Jennings final broadcast‚Äîas he told us with a raspy voice, that he had lung cancer and would be seeking treatment. He also assured us that he’d be back once he’d recovered. Unfortunately, that never happened.

Most information about Peter Jennings can be found throughout the numerous sites that are doing their own eulogies, but there were a few things that stood out for me from my readings.

Jennings, who was born in Canada, had kept his citizenship up until 2003 when he finally became a U.S. citizen “for his family”. He began broadcasting for the CBC, at age 9, where his father was the first anchor for the new Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Something I found very interesting is that Jennings never finished high school. Interesting because, although he didn’t have any kind of formal education, his job allowed him to use the world as his school. Anyone that equates intelligence to education, must not have known of Peter Jennings. I think even PhD’s would have felt inadequate talking to Jennings. It just reaffirms what I’ve always known‚Äîa piece of paper saying you took a bunch of classes is nothing compared to what you can learn by going out into the world and learning it on your own. That said, if you have the opportunity to go to school and get a degree, by all means, take advantage of it… but if you don’t, just remember that some of the greatest minds out there have no formal training.

Finally, a little about lung cancer. Jennings had quit smoking and then recently started back up. As the statistics went across the screen this morning, it was amazing to see how smoking can affect people. A doctor explained, on the ABC morning show, that if you stop smoking your body can actually repair itself. The problem most people have is that while smoking they may experience a small “smoker’s cough” and when they quit, the cough will get worse. So most people figure that they might as well resume smoking since it helped keep the cough lighter. The problem is that that cough is your body’s way of trying to pull out all of the tar and nicotine from your lungs.

Even worse though, was the fact that 10% of cases of lung cancer are in people that NEVER smoked a cigarette in their entire lives. Some of those could be in people that worked in environments where they were breathing cancerous fumes, etc., but a good part of those are in people that dealt with second hand smoke on an ongoing basis.

Something I see often that makes me angry are parents that smoke around their children. In the house, in the car, in their face. Why should you force your addiction on your children? I’ve said this a million times, but I can always say it again… smokers are probably the most insensitive and rude types of people out there. Their addiction is what drives them and it’s all that’s important. If you ask someone not to smoke around you, you’ll more than likely be talking to a confrontational person. Not only will they not move, they’ll blow the smoke in your direction. Same with their children. Even though research shows that secondhand smoke is just as bad, if not worse, than smoking through a filtered cigarette, they choose to ignore it. Their addiction is more important than their child. 10% of lung cancer cases are from those that have NEVER smoked. But I think everyone already knows about that. Some just choose to look the other way. At the end of the day, that cigarette, a cigar or a pipe is more important than anything else.

Maybe there are some lessons that can be learned from someone who taught us so much. Only four months after being diagnosed with lung cancer, Peter Jennings is dead at the age of 67.

Tags: death, news

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