Words that caught us: Who is your Charlie Ross?

of President Harry Truman,

and the music critic

who wrote a bad review

of Truman’s daughter’s singing,

and Truman then blasting the critic in print.

 

Most people have not heard

about how Truman’s response

came to be published.

 

Truman’s press secretary

was a boyhood friend named Charlie Ross,

a man whom Truman had always respected.

 

Whenever something really made Truman angry

and offended him personally,

he would dictate a letter.

 

Rather than confront Truman directly,

about something he was about to write

that was beneath him,

Ross would take down whatever Truman said verbatim,

and type up the letter unedited.

But he never brought the letter back to Truman

for his signature for at least twenty-four hours,

at which time Truman always tore the letters up.

 

Ross never took a vacation while Truman was in office,

and never bothered to tell anyone about his procedure,

and then he suddenly had a massive heart attack and died.

 

The new man in his job didn’t know the drill,

and when Harry Truman dictated the angry letter

about the critic’s review of his daughter’s singing,

the press secretary had Truman sign the letter on the spot

and sent it out in the morning mail.

The rest, as they say, is history."

 

Everyone needs a Charlie Ross in their life.

Someone who is always on our side

But is not our echo chamber.

Someone who can save us

From our own stupidity,

Especially, when our emotions run riot.

Someone we can say things to

That we can’t say anywhere else.

Someone who is always on our side,

But has the guts and the wisdom

Not to take our side.

 

Do you have one?

Who is your Charlie Ross?

 

*Inspired by this post by Dan Rockwell and the comment by Jim Hodgson

**Photo credit: Agence Olloweb