Being Present
Leon Wynter
- Location
- Ossining, New York, USA
- Birthday
- August 30
- Bio
- First a Christian, then American and black by way of Jamaican immigrant parents and growing up in the Bronx, NY.
Born in 1953, just in time for everything that mattered: the space race, the triumph of the civil rights movement, disco, cable and the Macintosh.
I saw Bonnie & Clyde at 14, bought the White Album at 15 and the rest is my history. I cheered Spike Lee's debut "She's Gottta Have It" at 33 and have had little good to say about him since about 37.
That's when I started writing a column for the Wall Street Journal called "Business & Race." The title alone was a victory, and it ran for 10 years. But sometimes I think I should have switched back to writing tech when I had the chance, and the Internet was just a twinkle in the DOD advanced research budget (I know, because I covered it in '85, during my stint in the Washington press corps).
But that would have been too predictable, right? (And look how the Journal turned out, anyway.)
Why become Malcom Gladwell when you could be, well, me?
Twice an author (American Skin, Crown, 2002) (I Haven't Had A Bad Day Since, The Memoir of Congressman Charles B. Rangel, St. Martin's Press, 2007) thrice married and twice divorced, twice a professor of journalism, once and always the father of Grace Alexandra Wynter, age 10.
Why be brilliant, rich and currently when really smart, house poor and formerly offers so much—like Open Salon— and only demands what you can spare? Whenever I get there, I'm on time, right?
Other formerlies: NPR commentator, commercial banker, Yale graduate, Elder of the Presbyterian Church, Stern School MBA. (Ok, I still have the degrees, framed, right in front of me on the wall. But they're OLD).
I'm just in time to discover that life is not about being current; it's about being present with God for my wife, child and loved ones.
MY RECENT POSTS
- What Did I Miss
April 03, 2010 11:43AM - Cronkite, Orwell and Michael
Jackson
July 20, 2009 08:29AM - If Sotomayor Could Ask A Few
Questions
July 14, 2009 10:41AM - Michael Jackson, In Death,
Becomes Blacker Than Obama
July 07, 2009 10:32AM - Diversity and Sotomayor in
Obama Time-II
June 26, 2009 11:33AM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “There's a lot of heft in
the piece, and much merit in
most of
the comments.
What…”
October 30, 2009 03:33PM - “Harp-
You are
really, really kicking it out.
I remain thoroughly
impressed,
and re…”
June 04, 2009 09:43AM - “A sweet piece, Harp. The
words are different, but the
melody
is almost the same
o…”
March 24, 2009 03:28PM - “Harp-
I agree with
you about the importance of
the Legend letter and
"
sprea…”
February 24, 2009 11:17PM - “Harp-
Not really a
vent or a pity party at all.
There is something
genuinely
sorro…”
February 21, 2009 12:29PM
Leon Wynter's Links
- My Other Blog
- The American Race
- My Books
- Haven't Had A Bad Day Since
- American Skin
Cronkite, Orwell and Michael Jackson
ANOTHER (ALMOST) CROSS POST FROM MY BLOG
The American Race
— observing an up and coming People
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ORIGINAL
If Sotomayor Could Ask A Few Questions
ANOTHER (ALMOST) CROSS POST FROM MY BLOG
The American Race
— observing an up and coming People
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ORIGINAL
Read full post »Michael Jackson, In Death, Becomes Blacker Than Obama
ANOTHER (ALMOST) CROSS POST FROM MY BLOG
The American Race
— observing an up and coming People
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ORIGINAL Read full post »
Diversity and Sotomayor in Obama Time-II
Cross post from my blog:
The American Race
— observing an up and coming People
CLICK HERE TO READ "DIVERSITY AND SOTOMAYOR IN OBAMA TIME -II"
Read full post »Diversity and Sotomayor in Obama Time
Cross post from my blog:
The American Race
— observing an up and coming People
CLICK HERE TO READ "DIVERSITY AND SOTOMAYOR IN OBAMA TIME" Read full post »
links for 2009-06-14
Cross-post from my blog:
The
American
Race
— observing an up and coming People
Accept The Process, Love The Processor
The River
First you learn “it’s about the process,” and you believe it.
But as you see it’s not yours to control
It takes much longer to receive it.
(I wrote this two months ago, but have been just too overwhelmed by the “process” to po
… Read full post »Caught In The Remix
Not Lost In The Moment
— marking the current media to market
The Stimulus Debate
Takes No Prisoners
Unless You Count Informed Democracy
It started early Thursday morning. President Obama makes a kick-ass little speech, laying down the hard line against the stupid part of th… Read full post »
I Can't Believe The Car Tax Break
Not Lost In The Moment
— marking the current media to market
Ok, You Really Got Me Now:
If Obama Let’s This Happen
I’m Done!
The AP reports the Senate just voted out a big tax break–about $1 billion a year–for people to buy new cars or
… Read full post »A Thought Between The Chips
— observing an up and coming People
Could Black People Take Over America
In Just One Crazy Election Year?
No.
But they could very well have overwhelmed the idea of “America” and “American” by sheer force of personality in popular and po… Read full post »
The Gift Of Breath In Words
The River
Our rhythm has changed
But not the harmony,
As we make our way through words
On our first bedtime together in weeks, we read from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Grace, who now stokes the fire for words we kindled as
… Read full post »Loathing Yes, Shame No In Stimulus News
Not Lost In The Moment
— marking the current media to market
Someone Please Pronounce On Republicans
Their Own Magic Words: Shame And Repentance
So The Healing Can Finally Begin
What ever happened to shame?
Turns out it’s fact that outraged Republican apologists… Read full post »
Not Lost In The Moment
— marking the current media to market
There Is A Valid Stimulus Package Debate
But Don’t Expect To Hear It On CNN
Or Even (Sniff) NPR
The bottom line: the Republicans are still chanting supply side economics like zombies on the politcal
… Read full post »Coming Through Beats Coming Back
The River
Good to say that I am back
But better that I’m en-route
Pouring purposefully, through crisis,
After a lifetime of mere ebb and flow
I was solving a problem when the doctor woke me to say my brain surgery was done. Of course I
… Read full post »The River
A miracle is what declares itself
When your heart grasps the kind of truth
That always slips the mind
Greg Thomas recently asked what was "miraculous" about Flight 1549.
(see: What Constitutes “Miraculous” ? Flight 1549, January 16, 2009)
“Whether you c… Read full post »
Post-Election TV
Click here for
this cross post from
"The
American Race"
Read full post »
Things I've Always Known: You Knew Me
The River
Today I got my surgery date,
And remembered it as an FYI,
Because, of course, You had aready set it.
Some things I have always known.
You knew me, even before the possibility of knowing you ever occurred to me. You knew me before I knew myself,… Read full post »
Baby Driver
Some things I have always known. But I haven’t always been able to put them into words. That music came from some place inside that was more you than you. It only seemed to come from inside the darkness in between the mesh grill of my Dad’s handmade speaker cabinet and… Read full post »
Pick A (race) Card, Any Card
This is a crosspost from my blog "The American Race". Click here (until I get the feed right) to view. Read full post »
What Matters In A Storm-In the beginning, a covering
The River
My father, in his own purposed stride,
Followed my sister immersed in the current he didn’t know,
By a faith revealed in his cancer.
The River
On the Grassy Sprain Parkway
A few days before The River showed me its flow
Sally Swift
wyntersr
Harp
marytkelly
Critical Mess
Kind of Blue
Salon.com