I knew this day would come. I thought about it once in a while. As a boy a big part of my life was set to the soundtrack of Beatles/Zombies music and the voice of Walter Cronkite. When 8th grade history was a bit too boring, I imagined his voice reading the text like a news story. There was something about that voice. It made sense of the insensibilities of the Vietnam war and assured us if we wanted to, we could figure this thing out.

For over 20 years he ended each newscast with, "And that's the way it is." And I believed him. Every news anchor after him has tried something similar, but I really didn't believe them, not like I did him. In 2006 Cronkite wrote in a blog about his signature sign-off, "To me, that encapsulates the newsman's highest ideal: to report the facts as he sees them, without regard for the consequences or controversy that may ensue."

Hmmm. Reminds me of Polonius' last piece of advice to his son Laertes, who was in a hurry to get on the next boat to Paris, where he'd be safe from his father's long-winded speeches:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!

I didn't know WC, but I suspect he was one who became personally comfortable with "the way it was," before he said, "that's the way it is." Rest well Uncle Walter. We who trusted you will miss you.