Also this issue:

Dreams and Nightmares
Civic groups fight church's plans to re-use Metropolitan Hospital.
-Daniel Brook

Dissent Decree
Protesters complain they get short shrift in media.
-Daryl Gale

Where It's At
-Mary F. Patel

The Bell Curve
City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

December 5-11, 2002

on media

"Holy Charge"

Elmer do-all: Boxing writer turned columnist Elmer Smith is now a published author. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Even after 17 years, Elmer Smith considers it a privilege to be a columnist. His new book shows why.

by Deborah Bolling

For three decades, Elmer Smith has been writing stories about his hometown. With so much material it’s no wonder that the Daily News veteran columnist has finally released a compilation of his best musings, under the title Out of My Mind (August Press).

Smith, a reporter who began his career in 1971 at the now-defunct Bulletin, joined the DN in 1982, and has been a columnist there for the past 17 years. His tenure has taken him from sports columnist to general news columnist to his current post as an editorial columnist.

"About 17 years ago, an editor offered me a piece of real estate in a newspaper," Smith says, wryly. "He said, ŒHere's your space. Do what you like with it.' I've always considered that a privilege."

His new book, a collection of 47 essays that he promises should take no longer than three and a half hours to read, runs the gamut from family to food; from playing pool to playing politics. The 162-page paperback thoughtfully examines money, race, religion and culture, while taking a close but humorous look at humanity.

"Columns are self-revelatory," Smith says. "Even when you don't write about yourself, you do reveal your attitude and inclinations. I try to write my columns around humor. A lot of my columns are about using humor to touch on serious subjects. And, in my opinion, if a column takes more than five minutes to read, it's too complex."

Smith says that over the years, he's been surprised just how many people's lives his writing has touched. In particular, he recalls a column he wrote about Hank Gathers, a local basketball legend who died just before signing an NBA contract.

"As a lead-in, I referenced a kid I'd gone to high school with who'd died before he made it to eighth grade, a guy named Robert Brown," Smith recalls. "Like Gathers, people felt Robert never got to be who he was supposed to be. But my point was that no life is so short it doesn't touch other people's lives."

Smith says that the day after his column ran, he received a phone call from a young man who'd just completed basic training.

"He said to me, ŒYou told my uncle's story,'" Smith remembers. "So I asked him to give Hank's family my condolences. But the young man told me that was the wrong guy. He wasn't talking about Hank. He told me that he was talking about Robert Brown."

Smith says that during the short conversation, the young soldier told him that his Uncle Robert had been only a memory in his family, but like Gathers, he, too, had been a legend.

"Reading about him made him real to me," the young man told Smith. "I just wanted to thank you."

Smith says that brief exchange still resonates with him today.

"The highest purpose of an opinion column is not to make you think what I think," he says, "it's just to make you think. And I've learned that the message you send is not necessarily what they get. Sometimes it means so much more than you originally intended. I always knew there was someone on the other side of this communication."

Smith says he hopes people enjoy reading his book as much as he enjoyed writing it.

"This book covers all of my 57 years. It draws on the experiences of a lifetime," he says. "Every day, I know that I wake up and go to a job that makes a difference -- that's my life story. And after 30 years in the business, I've never lost track of what a Œholy charge' this is. Eventually, you learn that this work is definitely more important than you are."