Notes from the RNC. Day 1

F LoBuono

7/11/16

This one feels different. It’s my fourth election cycle (and, maybe, my last). So, it’s not my first rodeo. Each one has had its own challenges and rewards. But, somehow this one just feels different. I used to get so excited to go. After all, how many people get a front row seat to the greatest show on earth? But, not this time.  It’s more a sense of obligation, if you will, instead of enthusiasm. I suppose that because I’ve done this many times before and I’m getting older it would be safe to say that, perhaps, the thrill is simply gone. However, it’s more than that.

I’m feeling beat in the sense of Jack Kerouac and the slew of other writers, poets, deadbeats, and parvenus that took on the mantel of “The Beat Generation” did. Modern generations misinterpret what the word, and the MOVEMENT, really means. For them, images of long hair, beards, and sandals come to mind. But, Kerouac wanted the word to express a sense of frustration with the status quo and with the way the world conducted its business.  Jack was tired of the same old crap. He had been in the Merchant Marine during WWII and saw how so many of his generation were indiscriminately laid to waste. Things needed to change. And, if Kerouac couldn’t change the world, he could certainly change himself. And, he did, virtually creating a new language – a new voice.

The news business is a 24/7/365 meat grinder. The pressure to make deadlines can be enormous. The hours abysmal, and the bosses just the other side of Attila the Hun. There is little praise for a job well done and a wealth of criticism and scorn for any mistake made. People often ask me what I may be doing for the weekend. My response is usually the same: “What’s a weekend”? Sleep is considered an optional luxury. Getting and telling the story takes precedence over virtually anything else in your life including your health and your family (for example, I’m leaving with a heavy heart – my mother is quite ill right now). Maintaining healthy relationships is a constant struggle. On occasion, the assignments can be downright dangerous. And, we are often asked to witness some of the most horrible of human atrocities. Sometimes, I feel like my eyes are about to bleed.

So, lately, I’ve been asking myself, “after all of these years, why still do it”?

Well, it’s MY job. It’s what I do to make a living and, in fairness, it pays well. Working in the TV News business has enabled me to live a relatively comfortable life. I’ve owned two homes. I’ve traveled. I never go hungry if I don’t want to. For this, I am grateful. But, there is also a sense of adventure and duty; adventure because this business has given me the opportunity to see things in places that I only dreamt about as a kid - duty because a FREE press is the key to a FREE society. And, I take that duty most seriously. If and when I lose that, it will truly be time to go. I’m getting closer.

In the meantime, I’ll finish up here – 20,000 feet over the Midwest on my way to the RNC in Cleveland where once again, I’ll be making a lot of money running around 24 hours/day helping to try to make sense of what is REALLY going on there – perhaps, for the last time.

I’ll keep you posted.