As “All Things Considered” puts it:
A week away from turning 99 years old, Frances Kolarek has a long view of life and presidential elections.
Recorded and broadcast before the election, the segment includes strong broad support for Hilary Clinton, and includes the wartime story of how she became a journalist:
A reporting career was born. She loved her job and loved the newspaper, which was a mostly male preserve.
“It was an extremely profane, raunchy atmosphere. And I thoroughly enjoyed it!” she says. “I just liked the way it smelled and tasted. And I learned how to fit in.”
But, surely the words to focus on today are these:
“I am a passionate American. I will not let anybody say anything against this country. It’s my country, right or wrong, always, and always will be,” she says firmly. “I think we fail to appreciate how fortunate we are to live here in this democracy because we haven’t seen how other people live, with newspapers restricted, with their ability to cast a vote restricted. Freedom isn’t free! That’s the bottom line.
Follow the link and listen to or read the whole thing.
We will surely be looking in the time ahead to Frances’ guidance about what matters, and particularly to the importance of a free press to preserve all the other liberties.
Frances will be a critical voice of integrity, conscience, bluntness and passion going forward. Let’s remember to thank her and to listen to her.