blind_html Fwd: sadness and pleasantness rolled into one
- From: Nimer Jaber <nimerjaber1@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: blind_html@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 13:53:32 -0600
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: sadness and pleasantness rolled into one
Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 12:06:54 -0700
From: Edwin Cooney <edwincooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <edwincooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi All,
As sadness is accompanied by pleasantness on occasion, this is one of
those occasions as was the case when Paul Harvey passed away in
February. This is mostly personal but I hope it contains some
information and perhaps even some useful perspective. I wonder if
they'd like this one in Buffalo!
I hope you enjoy reading this as I'm grateful to you for the time you
take to read these almost weekly efforts.
Warm Regards,
E.C.
MONDAY, MAY 11^TH , 2009
BEYOND THE RECORD
BY EDWIN COONEY
If you?ve lived long enough, debated and evaluated people and events
frequently enough, you?ve judged losers who really were winners and
winners who should have been losers. It can take an entire lifetime to
realize the difference. Jack Kemp, who died on Saturday, May 2,^ 2009,
was mostly a winner.
Mr. Kemp was born on Sunday, July 13, 1935 in Los Angeles, California.
Despite being a lad of slight stature, he was determined to play
football from the age of six and eventually realized his improbable
dream. A 1957 graduate of Occidental College, he was drafted, signed and
subsequently cut by five different NFL and AFL teams: the Lions,
Steelers, Giants, and Chargers. Ultimately, he was acquired by the
Buffalo Bills. With the Bills, he?d be a two-time AFL champion. In fact,
he was so popular that he won a seat in Congress representing Hamburg
and parts of Buffalo, New York less than a year following his 1970
retirement from football.
He was handsome, energetic, and principled and, above all, a man of his
word.
I met him in late May 1965 while representing the Batavia, New York
State School for the Blind at a Lions Club fundraising weekend in
Geneva, New York. He was one of the celebrity guests. ?I?m not much of a
football fan,? I told him, ?What interests me about you is your
conservatism.?
I spoke of my admiration for Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, and
Republican conservatism. He told me to write him a letter care of the
Bills and he?d put me in touch with Mr. Nixon. I didn?t really believe
him. I thanked him, of course, but I was sure time would render his
offer unlikely. So, I let it pass.
In mid January 1966, I was sitting in study hall during exam week
confident that I could pass my next examination easily enough. One of
the typewriters was free, so I sat down and wrote a letter to Jack Kemp
care of the Bills reminding him of who I was and where I?d met him. I
thought it was unlikely that I?d ever hear from him, but into the mail
it went.
About six weeks later, I got a letter from Mr. Kemp. It came in a large
envelope containing his photo with a football (of course) and it was
autographed to me. In his letter he said he would soon be in California
to campaign for Ronald Reagan with men whose names were then magic to
me: Barry Goldwater, Everett Dirksen and Richard M. Nixon. ?I?ll tell
Mr. Nixon of your admiration for him,? he wrote.
In early June 1966, I learned that Jack Kemp had kept his word. I got a
letter from Richard Nixon with a copy of his book ?Six Crises,? which
was autographed to me and a picture of Mr. Nixon that was also
autographed. Thus my enduring gratitude to Jack Kemp.
Life goes on however. As Jack Kemp became established as a Republican
Congressman, I increasingly grew restive about GOP principles. His
position on public men such as Ronald Reagan and issues such as
supply-side economics became increasingly alien to me. As far as I was
concerned, he belatedly declared that he?d vote for the Articles of
Impeachment against Mr. Nixon (August 5, 1974). My heart had already
been broken by Richard Nixon, so it was hard for me to understand how
Jack Kemp, a man of Christian and political principles, wasn?t already
sufficiently disillusioned.
Still, I couldn?t entirely consider Congressman Kemp a nonentity.
Clearly he was a conservative icon and his 1988 presidential candidacy
was of some interest to me. It didn?t seem likely that he?d really be
successful though. He was substantial enough, but he often talked too
fast and his voice had a ragged tinge to it that I was sure grated on
some folk?s nerves. (Actually, I empathized with him on that score as I
live with a similar malady.) Still, those 1965/1966 memories were
compelling.
Although energetic and passionate, Kemp was an intensely private person,
reluctant to talk publicly about his personal experiences and emotional
inclinations. Nevertheless, he possessed intellectual and spiritual
depth and integrity. He cared intensely about minorities and the
disabled. He sought to make it possible for tenants of public housing to
purchase their homes while he was George H. W. Bush?s Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development. Although thwarted in that effort, he was
instrumental in the passage of the Affordable Housing Act which has
annually made money available through block grants to low income home
and business owners.
If there are some inclined to dismiss Jack Kemp as merely one of those
whose name is on a list of ignominious losing vice presidential
candidates (such as John Bricker, Bill Miller, Robert Dole, and Sarah
Palin), they?d be well advised to recall that others on that list (Henry
Cabot Lodge, Earl Warren, Edmund Muskie, and Franklin Roosevelt) were
men of substantial achievement.
Sports heroes and politicians are inevitably judged by their records.
Even though he was nominated for the second highest office in our land,
Jack Kemp is likely to be remembered most for his success on the
football field where he was truly one of the best during his career.
However, the impact he made on the ideas of the nation and people he
cared most about is intangible. Its substance is energy, commitment,
belief, and loyalty. Even so, his legacy glimmers like a magnificent
beacon shining above and beyond any achievement measurable in any record
book. Goodness! That definition might be the description of a star!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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