American Story with Bob Dotson
(From Bob Dotson, NBC News National Correspondent)
There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in contrast. Today's American Story with Bob Dotson focuses on one of those lights, a youngster just 16, who is already showing us the way.
Andrew Hsu is far more than he seems. Brilliant, yes, but compassionate too. His family taught him to think more of others than he does himself. When he was just a little boy, they took him to homeless shelters. Let him wonder why some people lived that way. Let him ponder what he could do. WATCH VIDEO
Television is at its best when it shows us such people. Breaks down stereotypes. We see so many stories about gifted children who are self-centered and selfish. Not Andrew. He has a dream as big has his brain. Visit Andrew's Web site HERE
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(From Bob Dotson, NBC News National Correspondent)
I've made an effort -- all of my career -- to look behind the media mirror that reflects the powerful and find tales of people who are practically invisible.
I like to stick stories to a list of long overlooked names. People who are changing lives. Not just in their neighborhoods. Significant people who don't send out press releases.
This morning’s American Story with Bob Dotson started, as so many do, with a note from a viewer. Here’s what it said: “Let me introduce someone that you, and the rest of America, must meet. He wakes up at 5 a.m. each morning, does 80 push-ups, puts on his running clothes and is off to run 3 miles, swim 10 laps, and bike 5 miles. He then cleans up and begins working at a mortuary as a grievance counselor, and finishes his day with community service, Alzheimer's support groups, speeches at local schools and churches, and always finds time to meet new people. He is just as well known for visiting the sick, lifting spirits with his jokes, and providing food for the needy, as he is known for the races he runs in South Africa, along the Great Wall of China, barefoot in Greece, and the walls in his home covered in gold medals. You probably think I am describing a young man in his prime, but this is actually the day-to-day life of my 100 year old grandfather, LaGrand Nielsen.”
Here’s his picture:
What do I love about his story? It doesn’t present the old age cliché. No cutesy seniors playing kazoos. Just a simple report about a man who has quietly made a difference in the many lives he’s touched. WATCH VIDEO
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(From Bob Dotson, NBC News National Correspondent)
Music is the soundtrack of our lives. Listen to a few long forgotten notes. Chances are you can remember why you love them. Where you were when you first heard them. I remember the group featured in this morning’s American Story with Bob Dotson, when they were just kids. Thinking, “No one explores the limits of the piano like the Five Browns.” Ten hands. Fifty fingers. Five pianos. Sometimes these brothers and sisters play so fast, listening to them is like trying to read a magazine with a four year old turning the pages. In quieter moments they can make five pianos sound like a lover's voice, calling new audiences to see them. WATCH VIDEO
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(From Bob Dotson, NBC News National Correspondent)
Longing can chart a better course than Mapquest. After 65 years, the Abele brothers have finally found their father. Jim Abele commanded the Grunion, a U.S. Submarine that disappeared off the coast of Alaska during World War II.
Five years ago, his sons made a deal with their hearts, not their heads, and went looking for him. It cost them a bundle.
“If this were to be an official Navy project,” John Abele chuckled, “I would guess that the taxpayers would be paying about ten times what we’re paying.”
“How much are you paying?” I asked.
“That’s a secret,” he laughed.
Just like the mystery of what happened to their father’s sub.
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(From BOB DOTSON, NBC News National Correspondent)
This job takes me out beyond the limits of my settled life. I’ve been to Yellowstone in winter, where it’s so cold, spit bounces. I’ve been to Alaska chasing sled dogs, as they scramble eleven hundred miles along the Iditarod trail. I’ve watched a mountain climber scale Yosemite’s El Capitan—with a broken back. None of that compares to the life Will Steger carved out for himself. He’s the subject of this morning’s American Story with Bob Dotson. WATCH VIDEO
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(From Bob Dotson, NBC News National Correspondent)
Growing up I spent my summers in farm country - Kansas - with a grandfather who loved to tell stories. Perhaps that's why I got into the storytelling business. One day when I was 18, Grandpa Bailey told me how he impressed girls at my age. "I would put on my oldest pair of pants," he said. "The ones with pieces of cloth stitched at the knees to cover the wear." Grandpa drove his dates out into the country, pointing at prosperous farms as they passed. "That's my patch!" he exclaimed, tapping his torn pant leg beneath the dash. "That's my patch!"
At 18 my grandfather was all hat and no cattle, a kid with little money and no property. He would have loved today's American Story with Bob Dotson. WATCH VIDEO.
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(From Bob Dotson, NBC News National Correspondent)
Viewers ask me, “What’s your favorite American Story?” I always say, “The next one.” It’s too tough to choose from the past. I’ve done about a thousand of these stories. But while working on this morning’s piece, WATCH VIDEO I found a note, yellowed with age, stuck in the back of my drawer. It said “Thu Nga Tran gave birth to a baby girl last night.” Not so unusual really, but when she was a child, her mother sent her searching for freedom in a tiny wooden boat just sixteen-feet long and seven feet wide. It held 324 people. CONTINUED >>
(From Bob Dotson, NBC News National Correspondent)
I wish I could share with you all the story suggestions I get every day. Hundreds of 'em. The best come from viewers who drop them into my mailbox on our TODAY Show webpage. American Story with Bob Dotson mailbox.
Too often on television news programs we content ourselves with reporting a few top stories -- day after day. You tell me how you live. How you cope. What values you have. You also send solutions. Great ideas. Like today's American Story about a man who has found a way to save dying trees. WATCH VIDEO It's the kind of solution that could send all those Washington committees to lunch. CONTINUED >>
(From Bob Dotson, NBC News National Correspondent)
I like to think of myself as the guy who carries the light bulb. I look for drama and dimension in the lives of what most reporters dismiss as ordinary people. These are the folks who are reshaping the world, as we would like it to be. This morning’s American Story with Bob Dotson is about a millionaire who lives humbly so he can lend all his wealth, every month, to folks who need a helping hand. WATCH VIDEO.
Viewers always ask me how I find such interesting people. Of course, you tip me to some. I’ve got a mailbox over on Today’s PEOPLE page: American Story with Bob Dotson mailbox .
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(From Bob Dotson, NBC News National Correspondent)
Here's a number that'll make you sick. Forty six million Americans have no health insurance. Yet, waves of Baby Boomer doctors are set to retire. A quarter of million have already done so. Two million nurses too. Many still young enough to work. This morning's American Story with Bob Dotson offers a way to change that. A prescription of hope. WATCH VIDEO
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