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WARREN – Steve Hartman doesn’t tell the kind of stories that lead the nightly news.
The CBS News correspondent’s segments usually fill the final minutes of the newscast, those feel-good reports designed to provide a respite from the doom and destruction, and the crime and corruption that preceded it.
Hartman believes his stories should lead the nightly news, but it’s not ego that makes him say that.
“If I had my way, all of these stories would come first, not only because they’re more reflective, I think, of who we are than all the bad news that comes before, but I think they also can be an elixir to what ails us. I think we really need something that restores our faith in humanity. We need to get back to that love we used to have for each other, that love that could get us through anything.”
Hartman brought an hour of that elixir to Packard Music Hall on Wednesday for a Trumbull Town Hall lecture. Local audience have enjoyed Hartman’s medicine enough that this is the Toledo native’s third appearance as part of the lecture series.
“Either you really like me or you’re hoping I’ll eventually get it right,” he said.
In between his comments, Hartman showed several of the segments he’s produced for CBS since being named Charles Kuralt’s successor doing “On the Road” segments for the network. He joked he already used his “A” and “B” material in his past lectures and he blamed his dog for eating his “C” material (complete with photo illustration), but he generated plenty of applause and sniffles by focusing on stories he’s done since his last Warren appearance.
Those stories included a boy who suffered years of abuse from his birth parents and in the foster care system. Since being adopted, he’s made it his mission to take care of the old, infirmed dogs that no one else will adopt.
“I know how it feels not to be loved or cared for, and I don’t want any animal of mine to feel that way,” the boy said, according to Hartman.
Another focused on a girl in Arkansas who tries to grant the simple wishes of the residents at the nursing home where her mother works and has inspired similar projects elsewhere.
“I’ve made a concerted effort since the last time I was here to do as many stories as I can of kids being kind, making the world a better place,ã Hartman said. âI really want to amplify their examples because I think it motivates adults to do the same thing.”
Hartman uses the girlás story at the school his three children attend. He plays it for the seventh graders as an example of how a small investment can change a life. Then he gives each student $50 and an assignment to change to world. A month later, each student reports back to him about how they used that money to do good.
Hartman himself has been inspired to take a more active role by the people heás interviewed. In 2013 he did a story on a man in Tacoma, Wash., who played âTapsã every night at sunset in the summer to pay tribute to those who died for their country. As he played, the neighbors came out and listened with their hands over their hearts.
It made Hartman think about trying to duplicate that experience nationwide, having musicians play “Taps” while others paused what they were doing to remember and reflect. The first people he mentioned the idea to discouraged it, telling him he was a reporter and that wasn’t his job.
But he revisited the idea after the COVID-19 pandemic started, and this time his producer didn’t say no. Working with Yari Villanueva of Taps for Veterans, they’ve done it the last two years at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day. Based on the photos and videos he’s received, Hartman said he believes thousands have participated.
It will happen again this year, he said, and it will be promoted across the network’s entertainment and sports divisions as well as the news division.
“Step outside and see if you can hear it lofting over your neighborhood,” Hartman said. “I’m confident you’ll get the same lump in your throat I had all those years ago.”
agray@tribtoday.com