Paul Harvey 1918-2009

"Hello Americans, this is Paul Harvey. Stand by for news."

For many years, Paul Harvey was the voice of America. And why wouldn't he be? He embodied many of the good things of our country, the kind of characteristics the people that made the United States such a great success also had, be they well-known personages, or the unknown masses who labor every day without much ado.

Paul Harvey was industrious beyond belief. Well into his late 80s he was waking up every day at 3:30 in the morning to get to work by 5:30. Many thought him to be a conservative, but I found him neither particularly conservative nor overly liberal. I think he understood that ideologies weren't as important as how people behaved, whether they did right or not. He was, as much of America is, middle of the road. To him, there was right and wrong, and it was always better to do right. He held the values that are called "middle-American," the kind of belief system that held that what happens with and to your country is incredibly important, but God and family are even more important.

I had heard of Paul Harvey for as long as I could remember, but I didn't start listening to him until the late 1980s. I had a job where I drove around in a car all day, thereby affording me much time to tune in to the radio. He came on WGN every day at noon. I would listen to Harvey give his take on the day's news and then listen to the farm report, even though I knew less than nothing about agriculture and had absolutely no ties to the farming world, other than enjoying the end results of the farmers' efforts.

The farm report went by the wayside eventually, as did my job driving around all day, but Paul Harvey remained on the radio during the noon hour, and I always listened when I could. He was on less and less frequently the last year or so, a year of great loss for him as his beloved wife, "Angel," died last spring. But whenever he was on, he was still a joy to listen to.

Paul Harvey's voice itself was the voice of the Great Plains, coming as he did from Oklahoma. It was the voice of the American Century, a strong, determined voice, but one filled with kindness and warmth, a voice in which you heard hard won confidence and genuine humility.

Paul Harvey was something we may not hear in radio again, the airwaves being filled now with voices of negativity. Paul Harvey would never have wished failure on an US President, no matter how much he disagreed with him. When Harvey took a position opposite to the Commander-in-Chief, he did it respectfully and with compassion, as when commented directly to Richard Nixon one day on the air about the Viet Nam War: "Mr. President, I love you, but you're wrong." So many today, on the radio and off, don't know what love and respect are.

As were the times in which he lived, from the Roaring Twenties through World War II through 9-11 through to just the other day, Paul Harvey was unique. We may never, unfortunately, see, or hear, his like again.