Bob Simon

I only knew Bob Simon as a 60 Minutes correspondent.

He had been contributing to the show since 1996.

I thought of him as a kindly older gentleman who covered interesting topics and conducted penetrating interviews.

I didn't know a goddamn thing about him.

The man was a legend in the world of journalism. He was considered one of the few elites who covered major overseas conflicts and news stories from the 1960's to today.

He won 27 Emmy Awards (excellence in the television industry), four Peabody Awards (originally considered the Pulitzer Prize for radio, now expanded to include excellence in electronic media), and the Overseas Press Club's highest honor for a body of work - The President's Award.

This only scratches the surface of the awards he won.

As a foreign correspondent he has had many close calls, been wounded, been detained and was actually captured by Iraqi forces in January 1991 and held captive in Iraqi prisons for 40 days.

He began his war reporting career in Viet Nam and was on one of the last helicopters out of Saigon.

He has covered conflicts in Northern Ireland, Portugal, Cypress, The Falklands, The Persian Gulf, Yugoslavia, Grenada, Somalia, Haiti, Poland, Israel and Lebanon.

This only scratches the surface of the stories he has covered.

He was much more than a kindly older gentleman.

After learning all this about the man I became furious at the circumstances of his death.

Bob Simon died in a car accident in New York City on February 11. He wasn't even driving; he was being chauffeured.

He was 73.

According to the New York Post, "the driver in the car crash that killed renowned CBS news journalist Bob Simon had nine license suspensions and used one hand on the wheel because of a "dead" left arm from a suicide attempt."

The driver had a probationary license with the Taxi and Limousine Commission, which was suspended pending an investigation into the fatal accident.

In addition, two days before the fatal accident, a co-worker had warned his superiors to fire the driver because of his erratic driving. Other co-workers were angry about recent complaints filed by customers. The driver had been fired by the company, but re-hired two months ago under new management. One driver reported :"Since he came back, customers were E-mailing the company. They didn't feel comfortable riding with him."

Bob Simon was not wearing a seat belt. The man probably felt bullet proof considering the life he led. Maybe it never occurred to him that you could die in a NYC traffic accident. I was in NYC last October riding in the back seats of cabs and I never once put on a seat belt. I even had one maniac stereotypical cabbie who would fly from one block to another, jam on his brakes and then do it again.

I still did not consider wearing a seat belt. It did not seem life threatening.

Still.........................

Nine license suspensions? A man like that cuts short the life of a man like Bob Simon?

I am beginning to think we live in a lawless and gutless society.

It's not bad enough that our society is saturated with hatred and violence, it feels like we are incapable of punishing and controlling those who deserve it the most. Seems like the people who get punished are the innocent victims of idiocy.

It could not be more obvious that this man should not have been behind the wheel, especially in a business where he is responsible for other peoples' lives.

And yet he was and Bob Simon is dead and the driver is alive.

The driver should be strapped into an electronically controlled car, which is then maneuvered into a Thelma and Louis style flight into the Grand Canyon.

Bob Simon loved opera. He called the metropolitan Opera House his "temple."

In February over 150 close friends of his gathered at the Met for a private ceremony. Nine people closest to Simon shared stories of his life and their relationships. In between stories, songs were performed by guest artists.

Seems like a very cool and very fitting way to remember the life of a man who accomplished and contributed so much.