This past week we lost a great American treasure, the writer Studs Terkel. In his amazing life he wove the tales of everyday people into an incredible tapestry of Americana. Perhaps his greatest skill and one we could all aspire to was listening. He was a great listener. As an interviewer he spent most of the time listening and his probing, inspiring questions came from a reflective place rather than from an agenda. Studs Terkel was and is one of my mentors and he was following the election with great interest. So tonight as I watch the returns that hopefully will show Barack Obama winning the election I'll be smiling thinking of Studs and how he never gave up, always kept believing, always listening.