Maybe one day my daughter will end up breaking more glasses than you and when she does, I will tell her to salute sojourners of truth like Soledad.

by Teddy Fikre  written:  Friday, January 27th, 2012

Time for me to put pen to pad and write about another beautiful soul by the name of María de la Soledad Teresa O’Brien.  I am sure you have seen her radiant smile on your television before and High Definition has done nothing but enhance Soledad’s radiance that much more.  This lady is DOPE to the bone, no other news anchor captures my imagination more than Soledad each time I watch the news.  Seriously, her beauty makes me forget for the moment of the inanities spewing from Newt Gingrich’s mouth or the duplicity forthing from Mitt Romney’s lips.  This is quite an accomplishment, who knew that a journalist would be able to gloss over the enmity of the Tea Party.

But let me not minmize Soledad’s accomplishment to mere good looks.  Soledad is an accomplished writer, journalist, news anchor, and the conscience of our collective minds.   Born on September 19th, 1966, Soledad has gone on to accomplish great feats in such a short time that it makes my head spin.  She is currently the news anchor of CNN’s morning news program called “Starting Point”—which premiered on January 2nd, 2012.  So no thank you MSNBC, I would rather start my mornings with a Starting Point than sip on Morning Joe Meto be Meto times out of a hundred.  I mean, who has time for Joe Scarborough when I can watch a beautiful soul by the name of Soledad five days a week.

Soledad’s career has a long arch that can shadow that arch in St. Louis.  She is a daughter of immigrants; her mother was from Cuba and her father from Australia and met each other at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.  You see, this charming lady was the byproduct of a serendipitous moment in Charm City.  At the time, interracial marriage in Maryland was illegal, so the O’Briens married in Washington DC.  After marriage, the O’Briens moved to Long Island New York where they gave birth to a beautiful soul by the name of Soledad.

Soledad is New York through and through and soon enough she found herself graduating from Smith High School East in 1984.  She set out to etch her names in the stars and in the process began to realize the magic of the pen and the power of the media.  She soon found herself on an NPR quiz show—one of my favorites actually—called Wait, Wait, don’t Tell Me.  She explained on the show that her name means “the Blessed Virgin Mary of Solitude”.  I know one thing, there is nothing solitary about Soledad but in her cornea I see nothing but blessings.  Despite her Hispanic heritage, Soledad does not speak Spanish fluently—ayzosh Soledad I don’t speak Amharic fluently either.  It is hard growing up in America, where the rush to assimilate makes us forget the best part of our culture.  But I know that all Hispanic-Americans and Australians are proud of you each time they see you on CNN—I know I am.

Soledad began her career as an associate producer and news writer on WBZ-TV, then the affiliate for NBC in Boston.  From there, her spaceship dipped without tail lights and she soon started traveling at light speed through the cosmic ether that is mass media.  She joined NBC in 1991 on a show based in New York as a field producer for the Nightly News and Today.  O’Brien then worked for three years as a local reporter and bureau chief for San Francisco NBC affiliate KRON. At KRON she was a reporter on “The Know Zone.” In due time, Soledad found herself as the main anchor of her own show called “Starting Point” and it is from that perspective that I find myself looking up at this beautiful soul while typing this article and sipping Ethiopian buna.

Soledad has racked up a litany of awards; Soledad’s work has been honored several times, including a local Emmy for her work co-hosting the Discovery Channel’s The Know Zone.  In 2007, Soledad  was awarded the NAACP President’s Award.  She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, which named her the Journalist of the Year 2010 [26] and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is a member of the Board of Directors of The After-School Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for all students.She also serves on the board of directors of The Harlem School of the Arts.  She was named to Irish American Magazine’s “Top 100 Irish Americans” on two occasions. She is also on Black Enterprise magazine’s 2005 Hot List. Also in 2005, she was awarded “Groundbreaking Latina of the Year” award by Catalina magazine.

In April 2008, she became the first recipient of the Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award, an award created in her name by Morehouse School of Medicine. “The award was created to recognize her accomplishments and willingness to be a voice for the voiceless in our society, and her determination to cover stories that might otherwise go untold. It will be given annually to mid-career professionals who serve as catalysts for social change in their given fields.”  She has been named in People’s 50 Most Beautiful in 2001 and in People en Español’s 50 Most Beautiful in 2004.

You see, this is what I mean when I say that Soledad is a beautiful soul.  She is a lady grace through and through.  She is a barrier breaker and a woman who pops her collars in the hurricanes of glass ceilings.  Against all odds, she has broken through and now this radiant soul shines my morning at the Starting Point each day I awake.  From humble beginnings in which her parents were forbidden to wed in Maryland, I am now wedded to this DOPE journalist each morning from 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM.

Thank you Soledad for giving me hope, I see that there is no limit to my audacity other than the paucity of my imagination if I choose to be so.  I will aim high just like you, who knows, one day I might join you on Starting Point. Who knows, maybe one day my daughter will end up breaking more glasses than you and when she does, I will tell her to salute sojourners of truth like Soledad.  I know one thing, we are all tall because we stand on the backs of giants, thank you for letting me stand on your back for at least one day.  Soledad, thank you for being the beautiful soul that wakes me up each morning even if I do so in solitude.

“Any work of art that can be understood is the product of journalism.” ~Tristan Tzara

[click to see Soledad]

[click to view full bio]

Author

Teddy Fikre

[click to view profile]

[click pic to follow us on twitter or follow us @browncondor]

We would love to hear your comments/feedback.  Also, share this on Facebook, tweet it on twitter, or print it and give it to your grandmother.  If you would like to follow us on Twitter, you can do so @browncondor

To get in touch with us, send email to info@browncondor.com

Research source link