In 1994, when I was Editor at RADIO BUCHAREST, I was invited for a three weeks poetry tour in UK and IRELAND. I thought that this was “the most important journalistic experience of my life” and that I would never travel more than one thousand miles…
In 2004 it was the “Saint Mary” Church Centenary (a church from Cleveland, Ohio, the oldest Orthodox Romanian church from the U.S.A.). I wrote many reports about this Centenary in “TOP BUSINESS” (a business weekly with editions in the U.S.A., too /in Chicago and New York/ ) and I was invited by Father Remus Grama (the “Saint Mary” Church parson) to visit the U.S.A.
This was “the most important journalistic experience of my life” and then I went touring through the U.S.A. over one thousand miles…
Of course, the main idea is….”never say never !”
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I had the chance to live an extraordinary autumn in the U.S.A. called “Indian Summer”; it was a sunny season …it was high temperature…
I had the chance to meet the Romanian community from Cleveland, Ohio (one of the most important Romanian community from the U.S.A.).
Of course, my first interview was made with Father Remus Grama about the “Saint Mary” Orthodox Cathedral Centenary and the Romanian community.
I understood that the “Saint Mary” Orthodox Church was not a just a place for gathering of Romanians which lived in the U.S.A. ; it was a place to share joy and pinch, to share Romanian spirituality, customs, traditions.
Father Grama spoke a lot about Romanian community and I was shown over the Romanian Museum (near the church), where there were some traditional Romanian folk costumes offered by the Queen Mary of Romania before the second world war.
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As journalist I consider my duty to speak about some persons and personalities from the Ohio Romanian community. They are special people, many of them have great skills and today I am proud to say that I have many friends among them.
First of all I’d like to talk about a very interesting case; his name is “Mark”. Born in the U.S.A. – from Romanian parents – he considers himself Romanian (although he doesn’t speak Romanian and he doesn’t know where Romania is). But everybody from Ohio Romanian community considers him Romanian and they say about
him: “Oh, our friend Mark !”…but they speak to him into English !
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Everybody who has come in the U.S.A. has his own story. I have made an interview with Alan Rosca (he has been Honor Vice Consul of Romania for Ohio state in 2004, today he is Honor Consul of our country there) and he has told me : “To come in the U.S.A. it has been like a second life…I have known this is the second best for me and I’ve done my best to succeed.” Alan Rosca is a businessman; he has explained to me: “In business is like you go to fish; if you don’t catch anything in a place, you have to move the boat in another place.”
From time to time I speak about the Romanian community from America to my students from the Romanian American University. I remember then a lot of people from Ohio: Mark, Alan Rosca, Professor Ion Muscutariu, Teodor Stroie (a famous American sculptor, born in Romania but… unknown there).
Everybody has his own story…That of Professor Muscutariu is a little bit different; he retired from Timisoara University when he was 59… His dream was to be in the U.S.A., to travel, to know…But they didn’t give visa to him because he didn’t speak English.
“When is it possible to come back ?”, asked him. “After three months ! “, was the answer. Professor Muscutariu succeeded in speaking English within three months…of course, not at a very high level, but enough to get visa.
Today he is Professor at two American universities ( a state university and a private one). Ha has invited me to visit these universities and he has spoken to me a lot about the American education system.
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One of the most interesting parts of my journalistic experience in the U.S.A. has been in Chicago, when me and my friend Mircea Bartan from Cleveland, Ohio…
But this could be another story, I’ll tell you just the beginning: we have written together a poetry book called “September Carats” ( it begins by 11 poems in memory of those tragic event from 9/11 ). We have launched this book at “TASTE OF ROMANIA” Festival from Chicago, in September, 2004.
My first impression about Chicago has been very bad: huge city, skyscrapers, 14 traffic lanes (seven-seven highway ), a lot of noise… After a family from Chicago has invited us to see this city from the 98th floor, from “John Hancock Center” skyscraper, after I have discovered that “Chicago” means “wild onion” into Indian language, I have changed my first impression and I can say I love Chicago now.
Journalist among journalists
2004 has been a presidential elections year. At a moment the best American journalists have been in Cleveland, Ohio, to relate about a TV debate for Vice President position in White House. As the only Romanian journalist present there I have been invited to participate at a press conference organized in Cleveland (Ohio is a very important state from elections point of view because it can “balance” the result ).
Debora Lee, reporter at “NewsChannel 5”, has discovered me and has asked me some questions (about the impact of the U.S.A. presidential elections about Romania); my answer has been included within the evening “News”…so I have become famous for a day within the Romanian community from Ohio…
From that press conference with the best American journalists I have noticed Ceci Connolly from “Washington Post”. I have made a short interview with her for “TOP BUSINESS” (a Romanian business weekly with editions in the U.S.A., too); her answers have been always a brilliant mixture between brightness and irony. I have discovered by Internet something about her activity :
Ceci Connolly has been a national staff writer at the Washington Post since 1997, covering national politics, health care and several major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. As the national health policy correspondent for the Post she spent the past year chronicling President Obama’s drive for sweeping health-care legislation. She frequently appears as a commentator on national television and is popular on the public speaking circuit. She is one of the lead authors of “LANDMARK: The Inside Story of America’s New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All.”
For much of her career, Connolly has dedicated herself to clear, insightful coverage of U.S. politics at the national, state and local levels. She spent 18 months on the campaign trail with Democrat Al Gore and was a major contributor to the book “Deadlock: The Inside Story of America’s Closest Election.”
During the 2004 presidential campaign, Connolly traveled for several months with John Kerry, tracing his come-from-behind nomination. She has written extensively about Congress, including the 1994 Republican revolution and the rise and fall of House Speaker Newt Gingrich. She has reported on every U.S. presidential campaign since 1984, attending numerous national conventions, debates and firehouse chili fests in New Hampshire.
In summer 2001, Connolly was named national health policy correspondent for the Post, producing articles on bioterrorism, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, skyrocketing medical bills, physician-assisted suicide, stem cells and the Terri Schiavo case. She was sent to Louisiana in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and spent 5 months on the ground, reporting on the worst natural disaster in modern U.S. history.
She spent two years based in Mexico City, traveling extensively throughout Latin America. Her daily blog on Mexico ‘s 2006 presidential race, Campaign Conexion, was read by people on both sides of the border and received hundreds of comments each day. She also produced a multimedia project on HIV-AIDS along the U.S.-Mexico border, and published a magazine series for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examining the links between socioeconomic factors and health.
As a public speaker, Connolly has a unique ability to translate complex subjects for audiences at all levels. She has spoken at the prestigious National Press Club, the Chautauqua Institution, the Cleveland Clinic and numerous universities, including Yale, Syracuse, Harvard, Columbia, Howard and Case Western. In spring 2010, she moderated a panel for the New York Stem Cell Foundation on Alzheimer’s research and addressed the Milken Global Health Conference in Los Angeles. Her breadth of experience enables her to speak authoritatively on a range of subjects including politics, health care, journalism and what it takes to be a successful woman in the male-dominated worlds of Washington and Latin America.
Connolly arrived in Washington in 1992 to cover politics for Congressional Quarterly, the magazine of record on Capitol Hill, and spent two years in the Washington bureau of the St. Petersburg Times. Prior to coming to Washington, she worked at the Associated Press in Boston, and at two New England dailies, the Concord Monitor and the Patriot Ledger.
She has appeared on PBS’ Washington Week, The Early Show on CBS, NPR’s Diane Rehm Show and several news programs on MSNBC and the Fox News Channel. She provided live, on-air analysis Election Night 2004 and Inauguration Day 2005 for the Fox Network. She has been published in Every Day with Rachael Ray, Inside Mexico and the Human Rights Campaign magazine.
In early 2001, Connolly was awarded a fellowship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She is a graduate of Boston College and enjoys golfing, cooking and eating in her free time.
Another important American journalist for me is Dick Russ. George Dobrea, the Honor Consul of Romania for Ohio state in 2004, has invited me and my friend Mircea from Ohio to participate at a TV show hosted by Dick Russ. He has been a perfect TV host and I remember that he has sent a sympathy message to me in 2006 (in that year my wife, Livia Iacob, died, some years after a breast cancer operation). I have discovered by Internet information about him, too.
Dick Russ has been reporting the news to the people of Northeast Ohio for more than 30 years. He currently holds the position of Managing Editor and News Anchor on Cleveland’s NBC affiliate, WKYC-TV, Channel 3. Before coming to Channel 3 in 1999, Dick spent 20 years at WJW-TV in Cleveland, where he hosted the Noon News. In the 1970’s he worked at a number of TV and radio stations, including Channel 23 in Akron.
His professional honors include membership in the Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and the prestigious Silver Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), recognizing more than a quarter century of exemplary service to the television industry.
Dick is a ten-time winner of the regional Emmy Award, and a two-time honoree by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists as the state’s outstanding television documentarian. He has also been honored with the Gabriel Award, the highest national award for religious TV programming, and is a recipient of the Religious Communicators Council’s national award, also for religious TV programming.
He and his wife Chris reside in Brecksville, and have three sons.
Of course, to be a great journalist in the U.S.A. means to be a personality – loved by American people and…honored by politicians.
Teodor Stroie, a great American sculptor
He was born in Brasov county, he spent some time in Italy and married in the U.S.A.
He has begun a famous American sculptor, but he is unknown in Romania. During my stay in Cleveland I made an interview with him , broadcasted by Radio Romania News.
His first statue made in the U.S.A was that of a giant Jesus. He was invited by the Italian community from Cleveland to make a statue of Columb for them, too.
I’m very happy and honored to speak about Teodor Stroie today.
In fact everybody has a dream about America. My dream about America was to write a book about it. I succeeded in doing that by publishing a book called “to An Indian Summer on I – 80. American Journal” published by Paul Polidor Foundation Publishing House ( I -80 is the international highway to Chicago) . Unfortunately this book has a sad dedication “In memory of the mathematics teacher Livia Iacob”. She died within Mihai’s arms.
Today Mihai is family doctor in France till he will graduate his “steps” /American exams to become surgeon in the U.S.A./, his dream.
My dream was to write a book about America.
As Livia died on the 16th of April, 2006, “my Indian Summer” ended then.
