Hamas War

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Reporters are People, Too

Growing up, I didn't know anyone in the media, politics, famous etc. We were very ordinary people, I guess. And the United States is a big place.

Israel is something else. When my kids were little, they knew, then Knesset Member Geula Cohen and other public figures like family members. When I was pregnant with our firstborn, I noticed then Opposition Leader and MK Menachem Begin when we were meeting someone in a hotel lobby. We walked over to pay our respects, and as soon as he heard my husband's name, he got all excited. He had recently been in New York, and because of a taxi strike a friend of ours had been appointed his driver and made a request:

"You're bound to meet my friend, Winkie, in Israel. When you do, please send my regards."

We used to be "the (sic) settler family" for journalists to meet, so our kids learned public and media relations from a very young age.

Why all the reminisces? A New York Times byline has just come to life for me. Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote a personal piece with her daughter, Olivia Robinson, because the fourteen year old ended up spending most of her study trip to China in the hospital, thanks to swine flu.

The article definitely puts a very human slant to the epidemic.

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