WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN? Or Will The Real Deep Throat Please Stand Up?

Today the guessing games are over. For most of my life, from time to time since Watergate, the media pundits would "round up the usual suspects" and try to guess who Deep Throat might have been. Theories circulated, some become popular, then fizzled. The four people who knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, kept silent: Ben Bradlee, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and of course, Deep Throat.

Driving home from work today, I heard on NPR that Deep Throat had outed himself. By the time the six o'clock news came on Woodward and Bernstein had confirmed his identity. Urged on by the family he'd kept in the dark for thirty years; Mark Felts, former second in command at the FBI, revealed himself to be the most famous whistleblower in history.

In this day of live news feeds, instant communications, and open self-revelation (this latter even to the regrettable point of public self-humilation), it is hard to imagine such an important secret being kept for 33 years. And it is testimony of the integrity of the three journalist who shared Felts secret all these years. I'm sure there were considerable financial and other temptations over the decades; but they held their ground, and their tongues.

And the Felts family was right. At 91, and in poor health, Felts deserves to be acknowledged for the role he played in the Watergate drama. He put himself at risk to speak the truth. And while that truth proved to be the swan song for the Nixon Administration; it also showed the strength of the American government, and Constitution. The President resigned, but the United States continued. And Watergate showed that no one in America is above the law.

I was 14 when Nixon resigned. I remember watching his speech on TV with my family. But all I really remember about the speech was that it was the shortest he'd ever given. For years, I'd seen news about the Watergate investigations and hearings, even seen parts of some of the hearings on TV, as well. This was Social Studies class in action. I remember I was not surprised by the resignation, and perhaps like most of America, was a bit relieved when it finally happened. But I knew it was an important moment in our nation's history.

I grew up in the Sixties and Seventies, a time when most US households had just one TV. In fact, Nixon's resignation came not too long after our old black and white Zenith had finally died and we got our first color TV. But on that old Zenith, I'd watched the news with my parents.
Every evening Walter Cronkite, or sometime David Brinkley and Chet Huntley, appeared in our living room. I saw soldiers in the jungles of VietNam, two Kennedy funerals, scenes of race riots and civil rights protests, anti-war protests, the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, and Neil Armstong step on the moon for this first time.

And in grade school, they would bring in TV's so we could watch the Apollo launches during class. History-making events seem to have sprouted in my childhood like dandelions. No, wonder I'm such a history buff.

And in all that living history, I saw American at its worst. But I also saw American at its best, and I saw its great potential. And I still see it today, despite all the Red versus Blue naysayers.
Because during those turbulent Cold Wars years, I saw American reach ever and ever farther towards new frontiers, and ever and ever closer to her ideals of liberty and justice for all.

I've seen our country wrestle with dilemnas and become better and stronger because of those struggles. And we will do it again.

And today, we have an unmasked hero to remind us of what we all can accomplish. One voice can make a difference.

Thank you, Deep Throat!