An Open Letter to ABC’s Barbara Walters,  I have only one question, why?  Why now? Why drag a quiet, dignified 88-year old man who left public life almost 30 years ago through your ‘last gasp’ book tour? Why so selfishly bring his reputation into question? What does it bring you? It was early Spring, 1974. Temperatures broke records topping 90 degrees (35C) several days that week. I was part of the Close-Up Massachusetts student delegation and one of three students from the tiny town of Avon to travel for a week to Washington, DC. Close-Up was founded two years prior as a vehicle to allow high school students interested in government to see it in action.  For about $200 we boarded Amtrak trains direct to Union Station, lived in the Sheraton Hotel for a week and followed a detailed curriculum of visits with every branch of government. It was pretty heady stuff for a 16-year old to stand 10-feet away from President Richard M. Nixon (who later arranged a private White House tour), sit in on private sessions with Senators, Congressmen and Supreme Court Justices, as well as meetings at the State Department, Treasury, Commerce, Defence and see “behind-the-scenes,” other departments such as the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, Library of Congress, The Smithsonian and every major possible site to see in the District. It was a time of great turmoil and strife. Richard Nixon was not enjoying his second term in office as Watergate swirled about him, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein daily broke damaging story after story (so our first stop each morning was the hotel newsstand to get and read The Washington Post) and Congressional Impeachment hearings (for which a young Hillary Rodham was a lawyer for the Judiciary Committee), were taking its toll and he would resign from office a few months later.  An important part of the trip was to meet with members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation and in the rotunda of the Dirksen Senate Office building a very impressive, soft-spoken Senator had 150 of us hanging on his every word. He was so quietly confident and spoke with a deeply moving passion that I remember to this day about our joint duty and responsibility to serve others.  He was also one of the few speakers that week that really intellectually challenged us and treated the group of 16 and 17 year olds as thinking rational young adults.  I’ve been reminded of that week several times over the last 35-years especially when watching the award winning and widely acclaimed ‘The West Wing’ episode filmed days after 9-11 entitled ‘Isaac and Ishmael’ where, during a White House security lockdown, school kids discussed lucidly with senior White House staffers differences between the US and Middle Eastern extremists and a later episode where young students pushing for the right to vote at age 16 are taken seriously and shown how they can engage for the sake of their own future. I followed Senator Brooke’s career for the next five years through University. There was never any bombast or bluster to the Senator. He was first and always a gentleman and seemed able to quietly persuade others to join him. It was his strength of character that drove actions in government and ultimately, if your account is to be believed Mrs. Walters, what also drove his own dark side. Of course there was no CNN, USA Today or C-SPAN running 24/7. The media pack of dogs was entirely focussed on President Nixon’s downfall so here was a dedicated public servant toiling in relative anonymity and speaking to us about doing good and doing well.  He was the nation’s first African American Senator (we did not use the word “black” in the 70s) and in our wide-eyed, un-cynical way we hung on every word not knowing he was at that moment sharing his bed with THE rising superstar of ABC news and television. I’m very glad I did not know then because so much happened in the late 60s to destroy our faith in public figures and government. I would turn cynical somewhere after Watergate because we were lied to on so many levels. Had you been discovered, this may have been the one straw to break this camel’s back, a decent, honourable man in our eyes… if we’d known then, it would have been devastating – who indeed can you trust? Mrs. Walters, you describe that time as a “deep infatuation” and that he was “very exciting.” Well I’m very happy for you and repeat my question. Why would you choose now to drop this story? It is beyond belief. For 30-35 years you respected his privacy. Are ratings so bad on The View or are you somehow trying to inject yet another dimension of race or infidelity into the current Democratic shamble of a primary where a similarly inspiring black American politician is fighting for the Democratic nomination as his kooky pastor now fills the airwaves?  Why bring it up? The Senator, now 88, was enjoying a quiet retirement and now the media hordes will descend upon a man who exited private life almost 30 years ago and lived privately for decades? I am sure your book is rich in history. You have many amazing stories to tell about interviews and time spent. Your career was admirable as nearly every major interviewee known to man wanted to sit on your couch and see if you could make them reveal something of themselves in tears. Why tell all? Why, now? Why tarnish his legacy for your gain? In 2004 he became only one of 21 senators to ever receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George Bush (about the only thing President Bush and I can agree on). I have a theory and I don’t like it.  In the pilot episode for Studio 60, Jordan McDeere, the network President asks producer Danny Tripp why he does not trust her, his answer is simple, “because you work in television.” Is creating a media buzz on Oprah to sell you memoir so important that you would stoop to betray someone whom you say you cared for? Oh, that’s right, no need to answer.  You work in television.  Shame on you Mrs. Walters, we expect better.