Good Night, Ted

Twenty-five years ago (and a few months), Ted Koppel started reporting on the Iranian Hostage Crisis on a show that became known later as "Nightline." In my senior year in high school, I felt at odds with the mounting terror in the Middle East and the mounting drama in my own life. I was at the top of my game, band-geek wise, and I was actually going out on dates with girls. My connection to responsible classwork began to slip away as I fell into classes like Ceramics and Selected Topics in Math. There was a lot to joke about, but we could all smell a change in the air.
Ted Koppel was there each night, after the local news, to remind us of what was happening on the other side of the planet - the other side of the planet that the class of 1980 was getting ready to inherit. A friend of mine was growing a pea garden in a milk box as a symbol of - well, I guess I'm not sure what the symbolism was - but he took good care of his "Hostage Peas," and we all kept an eye on them for him when he brought them to Pop Lit.
When we used to write a "Weekday Update" column on the blackboard in the band room during lunch. Each day we included, tongue in cheek, the day of the hostage crisis: "Hostage Crisis, Day 117." We were doing it to be clever. Ted Koppel was doing it to keep us connected to events on the other side of the globe. He took that "America Held Hostage" gig and made it last for 444 days, then twenty-four more years as Nightline. On April 30, 2004, Koppel read the names of the members of the United States Armed Forces who were killed in Iraq. He reminded me again of the world outside my window. Tonight, Ted calls it a night. Thank you for helping me keep my eyes open - now go get some rest.