LOS ANGELES — Ron Roberson is today a picture of success. He is a news anchor for CNN Headline Local News, has his own production company, and is a Christian Minister with his own congregation in the city of Montebello.
Roberson came from a most humble and tortured beginning. Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, he lacked a loving atmosphere at home during his childhood. What he received instead was an environment of fear and abuse from an alcoholic father who tortured him.
While searching for a sense of family through joining various groups, he ended his journey a completely lost and homeless person on Skid Row where he went to die.
'This is where I found the true and living God, as I was prepared to jump from the seventh floor window of the Frontier Hotel. God spoke to me and said, 'You've tried everything, now try me.'' Today, God has given Roberson a burden for the hurting, homeless, hungry and the youth.
We continue our interview with him in the final of four parts.
ET : How did you make the jump from working at Comcast to work with CNN Headline News?
RR : Now CNN Headline News and Comcast are almost the same thing. I am almost lent out from Comcast to CNN to be the anchor. My expertise I thought at one time laid behind the camera and in editing. So I went down to a facility over in Lake Elsinore that was taping the launch for the local edition of the CNN Headline News. I went there as a cameraperson, a behind the scenes technical guy.
The girl that was doing the interviews got sick, so they asked me if I would sit in for her, and cover for her, because they had some elected officials coming down from Sacramento and the show had to go on.
I had hosted a few programs, and I knew how to ask questions and what have you, so I sat there and did it, and then they asked me to come back to do 5 more. I did 5 more, then they asked me to do 20 more, and the next session I did 20 more. Now I am a regular. I anchor mostly community-based organizations that come on. I do local politicians and that kind of stuff, and from time to time, I will get a senator or two that will come down from Sacramento or Washington D.C.
ET : So you were in the right place at the right time?
RR : Yes, there is somebody bigger than me that I think is kind of pulling the strings. I think that you have to kind of position yourself for miracles, and it is a miracle that I am doing what I am doing. Once again, I don't consider myself to have a lot of skills as a host for a program like that. But other people think that I do. I just think I was there, I think I was placed there, and I think it is all for a reason, and I think that reason is for me to show somebody else that what happened to me can happen to you, just position yourself for a miracle.
ET : Here you are today, after all these good things have happened to you and you have turned your life around. We are all still human and we still have problems and we still have our weaknesses no matter what has happened in the past. It is always an uphill battle, it is never easy. How do you deal with problems or an old issue that comes back to haunt you? How do you deal with these types of things?
RR : As it presents itself, and you are right, there is always something. I will give you this story. When I got out of drugs I owed dealers a lot of money and one dealer in particular a lot of money. And I happened to be at Friscos one day getting some food and when I came out the door there he was. Of course the natural thing to do was to get scared, and I tried to go the other way and take off running, and my heart was really beating. I was really afraid because this was a guy I owed a few thousand dollars to. And the guy saw me, and I said 'Hey Joe how are you doing?'
I didn't know how he was going to take it or what have you. My thing is that I have a higher power that I deal with. I was allowed to rely on scripture and readings to know that I can cast my cares upon him, that he cares for me, and he will fight my battles and that type of thing. I never had that before, that was my family, my big brother, and my savior. So I said you know what I am going for it, if he is mad or going to fight me, I am just going for it, and so I embraced him.
We talked and I acknowledged that I owed him some money, but then I began to tell him about my life, and what I am doing now and invited him to come on out. I told him as a matter of fact I will pay you every dime I owe you, but you will have to come to church to get it. I have not seen the guy, even though I called him every day for six months. He would not return my calls. I never heard or saw from him again. So I have just learned that somebody is pulling the strings, I have given my life over to a power that's different from the Black Panther Party, different from the Muslims, etc.
You know, those things were fallible, they fell down and fell apart, they were only man-made things. I really believe that if you make the adjustment to feed the spiritual man that it takes you to another realm. I have learned to rely on the spiritual aspect of me, to me that is more powerful than the natural brother.
ET : Could you distill into a few principles what keeps you on track?
RR : I've got tons. One that I like is whenever I have a problem to not concentrate on the problem but on the solution instead. What I have learned is that when I focus on the solution the problem does not seem so great. I stay focused on the solution.
One thing I have learned is not to take things so personal. Sometimes when people are attacking me, I learned to look beyond it and not take it so personal. I have learned to look at the inner person and try to find out what is really going on.
Another thing is that I have learned to laugh man. I have found that laughter is a medicine. It is good for healing whatever you are going through. Even in my ministry it's almost like I have become a standup comedian or something. Laughter, keeping people laughing. Keeping happy, I believe that joy has a strength in it, there is a strength in joy that is different from everything else. If I can laugh through a tough situation, then I can realize it's not so tough after all.
I believe in doing things. In other words when I am feeling bad or going through something, I have found that the best thing to do is to go out and be a blessing to somebody. Then when there are certain things that I can't do anything about, like when I am hurting or in pain, I have a tendency to go downtown and bless somebody. I go and do something for somebody, and in doing that, it takes my mind off of what I am going through.