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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > January > 19 > Entry
Editorial: World wanted too much of Ted Williams too fast
If Ted Williams — the recently homeless announcer — didn’t have a substance-abuse problem before, his wild ride this month was enough to give him one.
It was painful to watch.
Set aside the fact that NBC and CBS had a fight that delayed his reunion with his mother. Set aside that the very moment of reunion had to be captured on video (and audio).
That was something nobody should have to go through to get winter shelter. Mr. Williams seemed OK with the intrusion, but it was an awful thing to do to his dignified, 90-something mother.
Beyond that, what was painful was watching him do interview after interview at a time of extraordinary turmoil in his life. (For an endless collection of videos, see www.dispatch.com.)
He had to keep psyching himself up to perform his remarkable readings and improvisations of promos and whatnot. He had to deal with personal questions about painful subjects.
Most of all, he had to keep going and going and going. At one point, he asked for a “nerve pill.” It’s not hard to see why. The Internet — where a video about him had “gone viral,” as they say — and the mainstream media combined to create a manic phenomenon that made it seem like everybody should take a chill pill of some sort, if only metaphorically.
It all started when the Columbus Dispatch discovered a homeless man with a stunning voice and remarkable background at an intersection that some Daytonians know — and more will probably come to know — at Interstate 71 and Hudson Avenue.
Mr. Williams suddenly found himself with multiple job offers and scads of good wishes, notwithstanding his extensive, if petty, police record and long battles with drugs and alcohol.
Appropriately enough, he didn’t want to seem ungrateful. So he performed. And a part of him surely enjoyed the attention. But nobody ever said that job offers will cure drug or alcohol addiction. Eventually, there was a family incident that resulted in police being called.
And eventually — with a sort of intervention by television’s Dr. Phil — Mr. Williams headed off to rehab, a contradiction of his oft-repeated claim that he’d been sober for two years.
What he really needs now is some space, some time.
Mr. Williams became a curiosity because of the contradiction between his circumstances and his talent. Then, when the Cleveland Cavaliers offered him a job without meeting him, he became bigger news.
His full story isn’t told. When he gets himself together and has some time to think, he might have suggestions to offer society for handling future cases of sudden celebrity. Those could be worth hearing, especially because they’ll come from somebody who makes his living — when he’s making a living — in the media.
Meanwhile, the continuation of his difficulties shouldn’t be taken as an indication that people were foolish to believe in him. But the road back is hard and uncertain. It takes more than a break or two.
Most people who have dealt with Mr. Williams have meant well. But they have given him yet another problem: Inevitably, some people, upon examining his life, will come to disapprove not only of his actions, but of him. And they will enjoy making their denunciations in public. They will express their disgust with what they see as the media’s fawning over him just because he has a beautiful voice. They’ll even paint him as a symbol of what’s wrong with this society.
Plenty of tests of his sobriety lie ahead.
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