I've had a few opportunities in my life to do what I call "walking inside my television." That's where I'll be at home, watching an event that's nationally televised, and then a few minutes or a couple hours later, I'm then in the scene that's being covered. The first one came during a White House press briefing in 2002 the day I covered the Maryland's men's basketball team visit to the White House. I started the day watching the briefing on TV at home in Arlington, Va., then a few minutes later, was inside the same briefing room while it continued. Quite a surreal feeling.
I felt that again yesterday. But it wasn't when I filed past the dozen or more satellite trucks or the equal number of stilted, made up anchors under bright lights doing live shots in front of the John F. Kennedy Library. It was the kids. In particular, the children of Bobby Kennedy Jr. who accompanied their parents and were shaking hands of hundreds of strangers, including mine. Just three or four hours earlier, I couldn't help but focus on them as they were televised with their parents watching Ted Kennedy's casket being loaded into a hearse by a military honor guard.
