A couple of months ago I subscribed to the Bill Moyers Journal podcasts on the iTunes site and proceeded to download every program that has been broadcast since the show went on the air in 2007. I've been listening to every broadcast from the beginning in my car as I go to work or run errands or travel through the countryside. I can't think of a better review of recent history and the thoughts, agendas and ideas that have brought us as Americans to where we are today. The same goes for every single broadcast that Bill Moyers has done over the past 40 years. 

Hundreds of conversations with the most active and creative minds of the past half century; about politics, philosophy, social activism, healing, myth, religion, current events and everything else under the sun. Conversations that influenced at least a couple of generations and in many instances changed the course of our national dialogue and our ways of viewing ourselves and others. Never does Moyers talk down to an audience or pander to the popular mood. Unlike most contemporary television talking heads, he never presents himself as the expert or pundit who has to explain reality to his viewers. While never hiding his own passionate point of view he's able to draw out from both his allies and his most ardent political opponents their sincere and deeply felt convictions by addressing them with respect and a sincere desire to know. He can play both the devils advocate and the harmonious chorus whenever it furthers the depth and quality of the conversation. Although he's a nemesis to the demagogues and extremists of the right he's able to speak to intelligent advocates on both sides of any issue in a way that illuminates either point of view. Both political allies and adversaries who appear with him speak of the opportunity as 'an honor'. Moyers always trusts his viewers to evaluate the truth for themselves and sees his own role as a journalist to illuminate the relevant facts and positions that can help us reach a decision. He can be scathingly critical of the wrongs of society, particularly of the plutocratic forces in government and corporate culture that presume to control our lives from positions of money and power. While certainly a populist by inclination, the basic value that comes across in all of his work is compassion and love for his fellow human beings, combined with an insatiable curiosity about what people are up to. 

I admire the spiritual foundation that comes across in every conversation he has with people of every faith and belief and point of view, with roots in an old fashioned southern Baptist tradition of free thinking and neighborliness. While my own attitude toward Christianity has become increasingly ambiguous and alienated as fundamentalists try to merge theology with the politics of bigotry, Bill Moyers stands out to me as the most visible and positive embodiment of what it means to approach life and our fellows in the spirit of a true Christian. 

As a journalist, documentarist and interviewer there is no one else quite in his league.   

At 76, Bill Moyers is certainly due for a rest, and yet as one of our most valuable and respected elders this country and the world will be much poorer when he is not present. With a mind as active and a heart as passionate as his, I don't think we've seen nearly the last of him. His final words on the Journal's farewell broadcast were "See you around." I'm quite sure we will and I look forward to whatever the next manifestation of Moyers and company comes up with.