Dan Rather on the Texas recovery — and how America can come together
Dan Rather sat in the Texas blackout without heat or power or self-pity. He eventually was told to evacuate, amid fears his freezing sewage pipes might burst, but steps from his low-rise condo near downtown Austin, he could see just how much worse many people were suffering.
“A broad community effort to help is needed. So is accountability,” the newsman tweeted Feb. 19 to his 2 million followers after the historic storm buckled Texas’s electrical grid. Rather’s heart was hurting for his home state. But he was also warmed by how everyday residents rose to the occasion.
“It’s at a time like this I think that traditionally, Americans pull together,” says Rather when he hopped on the phone in late February, the power to his home just restored. “There is a strong sense of pulling together — let’s see who’s in the most need and let’s get the help for them. Let’s try to help everybody.”
Themes of cooperation during crisis run through Rather’s latest work, “What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism,” a just-released graphic novel adaptation of his 2017 best-selling prose book of the same title, in which the longtime CBS journalist essays on his love of country and American character, as well as of libraries and media freedoms. (Both books were co-written by Elliot Kirschner, and the new release is illustrated by Tim Foley.)
Rather — a first-time graphic novelist at age 89 — shared his thoughts on the project and the state of the nation from Texas, where he has been riding out the pandemic since last May, and where he and his wife, Jean Goebel, received their second Moderna vaccination doses the day before the storm came. (His responses have been edited for length and clarity.)
- On how and his wife are doing since the storm:
Texas is known for wild, unpredictable and woolly weather, but this is something else again. We’re blessed and grateful — we have resources and relatives here. A lot of people are still hurting.
- On how Texans are coping:
We’re in at least a mild state of shock. Texans, including this one, are wellknown as a proud people. Maybe sometimes too proud — I include myself in that. Part of our identity is that when it comes to energy — oil, gas — we’re the capital of the world and we really know what we’re doing. In this case, we as a state, as a society, as a people, were a complete and abject failure. The realization that we had a failure was part of that shock. Another part of it is that in the main, the leadership in all too many cases was an abject failure.
- On his book’s theme of empathy:
The imperative of empathy and the imperative of teaching empathy — it becomes clearer after a major weather event like we’ve just been through. One of the reasons I wanted to include a chapter on empathy is that I found a lot of people didn’t even know what the word “empathy” meant. There’s a big confusion thinking that compassion means the same thing as empathy. Certainly it’s true that any time there’s a cataclysmic or disastrous event, I do think there’s a natural inclination to be empathetic. It’s not pity — it’s not feeling sorry for people, It’s saying: Let me come as close as I can to walking in that person’s shoes.
- On division within the United States:
There have been so many voices that seek to exacerbate our differences and have really deepened our hurtful differences, racial (injustice) being one of them. There are so many voices that came to the fore — that sought for personal and partisan, political or ideological gain to exacerbate these differences and problems — that we were and are in danger of forgetting what it is that holds us together.
- On American political leadership:
We’ve just been through a president who openly made no secret of it that he was dedicated to the proposition that if he could keep us divided widely enough and long enough, he would stay in power and get his way. This president was a result mainly of all the voices who for years have been exacerbating our differences. It’s time to stop, take a breath and let’s review what holds us together. Because if we don’t do that, then there’s no way we can hold a constitutional republic based on the principles of freedom and democracy such as we have. Nobody’s kidding themselves. We have real, deep and abiding problems that large sections of us are never going to agree on. But we constantly have to keep in mind: Well, what is it we do agree on?
- On the role of media: We have to remind ourselves, and at least gently remind others, that a free and fiercely independent press is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy. If you don’t have that, you’re not going to have the kind of government and country that we have had and have.
- On writing his first graphic novel, which features himself as the illustrated narrator:
Humility is not a word generally associated with present or former television anchors. But I didn’t intend for this to be about me; I sought to use my own experiences to give examples of what we’re talking about. I have a hope that when this pandemic is over and we can all begin to gather again, that “What Unites Us” will be a conduit for me to engage with audiences of younger readers, who are the future and inspire me.
The rise of graphic novels came well after my reading habits were set. As I learn more about them, I realize they are unique and compelling. We live in a visual age and this is really its own art form. I now see why they’re so popular. I barely knew what one was. In watching this book take shape, with these wonderful drawings and the imagination of the artist, this has been an inspirational experience for me. It’s like seeing something in your mind suddenly take shape in ways that surprise and delight you.
My hope is that it can inspire other people to add their voices into the discussion, around what does, or at least should, unite us.
- On whether he will attend his first comics convention after the pandemic:
The short answer and the long answer is: Yes.