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on Saturday, November 18, 2006 8:47:10 AM
It was during the noonday newscast I heard Ed Bradley had passed away. At that hour there were few details, and I must confess, I didn’t think too much about it at the time. Later in the afternoon, I read cnn.com and discovered he had leukemia and had died from complications of it. It started to hit me what that meant…”was he saved?” The question quietly nagged at me.
During the national news broadcasts, I surfed the three major networks to see what the latest coverage was. In some ways, I regret that simple action as a montage of his best known and his personal favorites were recounted. When asked about how he wanted to be remembered, he said (paraphrasing), “When I arrive at the pearly gates and meet St. Peter, and he asks me what did I do to deserve entrance, I’ll ask him if he saw my Lena Horne piece.” The tears started to flow and I choked up, hoping that’s not how he saw heaven. Whether or not that was a joke, it opens up a serious conversation beyond heaven and hell – do you get into heaven by being a good person or by your works? …more