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Also pulling at our heartstrings were CBS' pair of week-ending features: Assignment America and American Heroes. The "heroes" were the children of Fort Lewis. Jerry Bowen interviewed gradeschoolers about their anxieties concerning their parents' frequent deployment to war. "The kids have learned to cope. For nearly half their lives this war has been part of their reality." A ten-year-old put it this way: "All the pictures that you are going to be taking while your dad is gone, the loved one is gone--there is going to be something missing. And that is going to be that person."
The "assignment" was on the Sadovnikov sisters, nine-year-old Christina and six-year-old Rebecca, whose mother is terminally ill with cervical cancer. Steve Hartman told us that mother Diane is a specialist in placing Ukrainian children for adoption--and so her last big task before she dies is to make sure her daughters have a loving home to move to when they become orphans. "I would like her as a mom for my whole life," wished Christina. "Me too," chimed in Rebecca. "That is unanimous," agreed Hartman.
A single feature about brave pre-teens coping with a parent's mortality is emotional. To file two in the same newscast amounts to saccharine exploitation.
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