But we cannot rely on memorials and museums alone. We can tell ourselves we will never forget and we likely won't. But we need to make sure that we teach history to those who never had the opportunity to remember in the first place.

One finds oneself saying: 'I know the right question, but ... this is not exactly the right time to ask it.'

A free and truly independent press - fiercely independent when necessary - is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.

Fear rules almost every newsroom in the country.

A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is that not everybody wishes you well.

Covering the civil-rights movement was a mind- and eye-opener for me. Houston was a segregated society, as was Texas as a whole - some of it by law, a lot of it by fear and tradition. But there was no violence where I lived, and if there was hate, it was either concealed from me or I just didn't recognize it.

If frogs had side pockets, they'd carry hand guns.