Jim McGrath 
I’ll Be Home [EPUB ebook] 
The Writings of Jim McGrath

The winner of more awards than any editorial writer in the Albany
Times Union’s history, Jim Mc Grath was both an Albany institution and a keen observer of the world beyond his beloved adopted city. When he died in 2013 at the age of fifty-six, the newspaper lost a writer who combined a passionate advocacy for society’s most vulnerable people with a scathing disregard for the elite whose actions created an underclass in the United States. His writing was often elegiac, but his take on his adopted home state of New York and his beloved Albany was variously bemused, witty, irreverent, and indignant. He could relate to the plight of the minimum-wage worker as easily as he could talk to a US senator, and he feared no one. His editorials and commentaries charted many of the most critical issues in New York and the country: the death penalty, civil liberties, gay rights, historic presidential campaigns, the economy, terrorism, and more—all with an incisiveness that remains relevant, if not more so, in the present political era.



In addition to his editorials and op-eds,
I’ll Be Home contains essays, critiques, and other writings that have never before been published, as well as appraisals of his work and life by former colleagues Rex Smith, Fred Le Brun, Dan Lynch, and others. The book is both a tribute to a memorable newspaperman and an insider’s perspective on politics and life through the lens of an editorial writer, a position that Jim described as ‘a great seat at a really weird show.’

Tabela de Conteúdo

Foreword: When the Newspaper Needed to Speak from Its Soul


Rex Smith



Introduction


Howard Healy




ALBANY




Introduction: The City That Jim Embraced


Howard Healy



The Race Is On in Albany, January 16, 1997



A Sad Note on Lark Street, February 19, 1997



Slayings Tarnish Soil of Albany’s Great Park, December 26, 1997



Drop This Case, April 27, 1998



Come Clean, Mr. Jennings, July 10, 1998



. . . A Defeat for the Machine, September 17, 1998



Albany’s Hot-Dog Politics, April 5, 1999



Justice for Ms. Mc Eneny, May 7, 1999



Time to Right a Wrong: President Bush Should Award the Medal of Honor to Sergeant Henry Johnson, April 24, 2001



Renewing Democracy Is Humbling, September 28, 2001



Jennings, Who Else? November 4, 2001



Outsiders Defy Odds in Albany, November 10, 2001



Whose City Is It? May 10, 2002



Albany’s Anguish, January 3, 2004



It’s All about the Guns, June 18, 2008



Audit the Ghosts, January 20, 2009



Jerry Jennings’s Fifth Term, Fall 2009



Memories of Larks at a Tavern, May 6, 2011




POLITICS



Introduction: Jim Mc Grath Loved Politics


Howard Healy




LOCAL


Preaching to the Faithful, March 17, 1995



All Eyes on Albany, December 22, 1999



Uneasy Justice, December 29, 2003



NEW YORK



A Voting Outrage, May 19, 2001



Voter Beware, November 8, 2005



Transcript of
As It Happens Interview on Eliot Spitzer’s Resignation, March 12, 2008



It’s Senator Clinton, November 8, 2000



NATIONAL



Farewell, Mister Speaker, January 9, 1994



Some Names Worth Hearing Once Again, November 16, 2002




INTERNATIONAL



A Chance for Peace in Ulster, May 22, 1997



Mr. Adams and Mr. Blair, December 20, 1997



Ireland’s Peace Must Prevail, August 20, 1998



George Mitchell, Peacemaker, October 22, 1998



Day of Terror, September 12, 2001



The Day After, September 13, 2001



Rising from the Ruins One Year Later, A Pause to Ponder How We Have Changed, September 11, 2002




SOCIAL JUSTICE




Introduction: A Certain Faith in Humanity


Bill Federman



More Unabomber Injustice, May 18, 1997



Cold Weather, Cold Truths, September 28, 1997



A Lesson Taught Too Late, July 20, 2001



Homeless in Albany, November 25, 2002



“No Room for Mercy, ” September 5, 2003



Injustice, February 15, 2006



A Proud Day for New York, June 26, 2011



The World Owes So Much to Mandela, December 7, 2013




JOURNALISM




Introduction: Mc Grath Thought That Newspapers Ought to Tell the Truth


Dan Lynch



Royko Was the Real People’s Court, May 1, 1997



J. Anthony Lukas, June 10, 1997



Finding Fame in Telling Fibs, July 10, 1998



Mike Barnicle’s Sad Fall from Grace to Disgrace, August 8, 1998



Editorial and Op-Ed Page Critique of the
Portland Press Herald and
Maine Sunday Telegram, August 1999



Reality Check at Skidmore, November 16, 1999




SPORTS




Introduction: A Red Sox Fan Above All


Phillip Blanchard



Introduction: “Hey, Jim, How Does Yaz Spell His Name?”


Howard Healy



A Spectator’s View from the Seats, July 23, 1995



Stanford’s Band of Cruel Fools, October 15, 1997



Sox Appeal, June 20, 2004



Thanks for the Memories, February 20, 1999



How ’Bout Those Sawx? October 22, 2004



Why Didn’t He Do More? November 10, 2011




I’ll BE HOME




Introduction: A Man at Last at Peace with Himself


Darryl Mc Grath


Somebody’s Thinking of Charlie Mc Grath, June 20, 1993



A Road to New Hampshire, December 25, 1994



Soldiering On: Another Generation, Another War, Another Cause to Honor and Remember, May 26, 2002



“Journeys Like Mine Should Never Really End, ” 2006



“I’ll Be Home”: Statement about My Work and My Goals, 2011



A Vanishing Call of the Wild, August 10, 2009



Boston, the Bulgers and Me, August 19, 2013



Small Town’s Appeal Crosses Generations: Cooperstown Sparks Musings of the Past and the Future, August 30, 2013




APPRECIATIONS




Jim Mc Grath’s Albany


Fred Le Brun



Jim Mc Grath: A Newspaperman


Robert Whitcomb




APPENDIX




Meet My Not-So-Silent Partner, June 11, 1996


Dan Lynch



Times Union Editorial Writer Appointed, November 7, 1996



Guild Mourns the Loss of Jim Mc Grath, September 5, 2013



Mc Grath’s Keen Eye, Passion Recalled:
Times Union’s Chief Editorial Writer, 56, Died While Vacationing, September 6, 2013


Steve Barnes



James M. Mc Grath, 1957–2013, September 8, 2013


Times Union Editorial Board



Obituary, September 12, 2013


Darryl Mc Grath



Eulogy, September 14, 2013


Darryl Mc Grath



Remembering Albany’s Voice of Reason, October 4, 2013


Lauren Mineau



Empowered to Do the Right Thing, December 7, 2013


Darryl Mc Grath



Acknowledgments

Index

Sobre o autor

Jim Mc Grath was chief editorial writer at the Albany
Times Union. He was named the Hearst Editorial Writer of the Year several times, and also received numerous first- and second-place awards by the New York State Associated Press Association, and two first-place awards by the New York Newspaper Publishers Association. His widow,
Darryl Mc Grath, is an Albany journalist and the author of
Flight Paths: A Field Journal of Hope, Heartbreak, and Miracles with New York’s Bird People, also published by SUNY Press.
Howard Healy is a copyeditor and proofreader for the New York State Bar Association; he retired as editorial page editor of the
Times Union in 2008.