SALLY'S

Opinion

AUTHENTIC CHINESE.

DESIGN

BOUTIQUE

Helen Thomas from page 24

not easy to like or admire, even if
she is 90 years old, tiny, frail and
in poor health. What is even sad-
der is that this is how she is likely
to be remembered.
Especially if she keeps it up,
and allows herself to be used as a
pawn by groups whose aims may
not really be hers.

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December, 16 - 2010

Looking Back
But there was once another Helen
Thomas: A working-class daugh-
ter of Lebanese immigrants, a girl
who didn't listen when people told
her that women couldn't cover
Washington.
That Helen Thomas became
the first woman ever to be White
House bureau chief of a major
news organization, and held
the job for decades. That Helen
Thomas covered John E Kennedy
and got Watergate scoops from
Martha Mitchell.
She was the first woman member
of the National Press Club, other
institutions, and broke through
ceiling after glass ceiling in the
nation's capital. I saw that Helen at
dinner that summer, when she was
happy and seemed much younger
than her 81 years. "I love my work!
I am the luckiest girl in the world.
Make that, woman:'
There were things about the
young Bush presidency she did
not like. "I'm a liberal," she said.
"Absolutely! Am I supposed to be
ashamed about caring whether
the sick and maimed are taken
care of?"
But she said nothing hateful
about anyone. Instead, she said
she hoped to keep doing what she
was doing until she died:
"I wake up every morning and
go to work with a sense of great
excitement. The great joy of jour-
nalism is that it is an education
every day. You have to keep learn-
ing, and you can never let up."
That's the Helen that maybe we
can someday again remember. ❑

Jack Lessenberry of Detroit is a

veteran journalist who teaches at
Wayne State University and who

also is a national Emmy Award win-
ner. He serves as Michigan Radio's
senior political analyst. He is host of

the weekly television show Deadline
Now on WGTE-TV in Toledo.

