A Writer’s Farewell

He always knew he wanted to be a writer. From the earliest days of school to the years as a misfit teenager and through three decades in journalism, he always liked telling a story.Unlike many of his generation, he did not go into journalism to become Woodward or Bernstein; he wanted to become Breslin or Hamill or Cannon or Newfield.He got to do a little of all that in a career that began in the minor leagues of New Jersey and ended up in the big leagues of New York, where he spent 25 years in newspapers, with a little TV and magazine thrown in.It was a wonderful ride; always interesting, mostly fun, and sometimes overwhelmingly tragic and sad.He got his start at a newspaper in Passaic, where he began to learn his craft and wrote stories about municipal waste and petty corruption that led to a criminal investigation.It was there he learned that in journalism it is not enough to do well – a reporter must also strive to do good.His fondest memory is a story that involved a boy named Tommy Cerbo, a courageous kid who spent much of his childhood in cancer hospitals. Tommy had a passion for baseball and, at age 10, with one arm already lost to the killer disease, he applied for a school run baseball league in North Arlington.The superintendent and the local board refused, saying the insurance costs were too high and suggested that playing baseball might be bad for Tommy’s health.The reporter wrote often about Tommy’s fight to play ball. On the day of the key vote, the reporter had a long conversation with the superintendent, who remained adamantly opposed to letting Tommy play.Finally, the reporter looked the superintendent in the eye and said, “Paul, Tommy is going to die in the next couple of years. Sometimes you just have to do the right thing. … Let him play baseball.”That night, after an emotional speech about doing what’s right, the superintendent announced that Tommy would be allowed to play, which he did until shortly before he died a few years later.Over the years, the reporter got to see his share of dead bodies, sat through endless pompous speeches and press conferences by inept or corrupt politicians, and sometimes even got to see the good guys win one – the forced resignation of Richard Nixon comes to mind.The supreme sadness of the aftermath of September 11 dwarfs everything else, but he remembers one night in suburban Newark when, as a kid reporter, he kept trying to sneak upstairs in an apartment building to get details of a particularly gruesome murder.Finally, a burly homicide detective right out of central casting grabbed him by the arm and said: “You want to know what happened? This is what happened. A beautiful young woman was stabbed 37 times. She’s naked on the bed, bleeding from everywhere. You want to see her?” The reporter did not.Over the years, he got to write about events that shaped our city: the murder of John Lennon; the Howard Beach racial slaying; the senseless execution of Yusuf Hawkins in Bensonhurst, which drove Ed Koch out of City Hall; the Parking Violations Bureau scandal of the 1980s; the Central Park Jogger case, and the killing of Lisa Steinberg.He even wrote the first-night story of the 1990 strike at the Daily News. After handing it in, the reporter, a member of the Newspaper Guild, walked out of the building, went on strike, and ultimately became a city editor, a news editor, and a managing editor elsewhere.Along the way, he got to meet people both famous and infamous – and to work alongside some great reporters and editors. He met Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter before they were elected president, shook hands and swapped stories with great lawyers, judges, detectives, politicians, gangsters, boxers, a world leader or two, and some people who just try to do the right thing.He also met frauds, fakers, corrupt pols, and people – in and out of government – who try to use the press to manipulate the truth to push some private agenda or line their pockets.And now it is time to say goodbye to all that. This is probably the last daily newspaper column he will ever write. He’s going to work for Randi Weingarten and the teachers’ union – a woman he admires and a cause he believes in.It’s been a blast. See you around the neighborhood.

A Writer’s Farewell

A Writer’s Farewell

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