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Connections...
November 26, 2000
"My kingdom is not from this world...For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth." John 18:33-37
'And now, the news...'
Three years ago, the management of Chicago's NBC affiliate decided to enliven the evening news by adding a new commentator: tabloid TV talk host Jerry Springer. Carol Marin, the Emmy-Award winning news anchor at the Chicago station, was appalled by the decision to include the ringmaster of one of televisions sleaziest talk shows on a new program--and quit in protest. Ms. Marin, who went on to become a correspondent for CBS' 60 Minutes II and is now news anchor at the CBS station in Chicago, says her high-profile resignation proved to be a blessing in more ways than one.
"I went into a market to shop and met a butcher who said to me, 'I was fired from a job because I refused to short-weigh meat.' I received a letter from a real-estate banker in a wealthy Chicago suburb who said that he had lost large accounts because he refused to pad real-estate assessments. I talked to the wife of a social worker who said that her husband was about to lose his job because he refused to place foster children in temporary state-authorized shelters where he felt there were too many sexual predators."
Ms. Marin says she prefers to be known for her work, not her decision to quite--but in some circumstances, quitting can be the most professional act of all.
[From "24 Things to do before you die" by Edward Sussman, Worth Magazine, September 1999.]
CONNECTION: Sometimes, like Carol Marin and her correspondents, we are confronted with the dichotomy between the values we cherish and the conventional wisdom, between the powerful pull of our conscience to do what is right and just and the prevailing attitude of "everyone does it" and the pressure of the bottom line, between the pull of our ethics against our need to make a living. Today's Solemnity of Christ the King confronts us with the beliefs that rule our hearts and minds and the values that govern every decision we make. The Jesus of the Gospels gives us reason to seek what is right and good in all things, to embrace the truth of God's love and compassion without second-guessing and fear, to hope in the fulfillment of God's reign in our own time and place.v
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