I just thought I’d share this with y’all. I found it on LinkedIn, and asked Joel, and he said he didn’t mind.
It’s what Joel Lourie, former Democratic state senator, had to say upon the death of Bob Dole the other day. I share it because it reminds us the way one human being is supposed to speak of another, regardless of such insignificant things as party affiliation:
Bob Dole was a good man, and yes, definitely a hero, and he deserves all the kind words that come his way.
You’ll see Joel’s post got more than 140 likes. Quite a few were from other friends of mine, including James Smith…
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I use to work in a Senate office next to Joel’s dad. Friendly guy.
Story about Joel’s dad.
When I worked at the state house and saw his dad walking the halls, he seemed to always have 2-3 people walking with him. I assume they were staffers in his office. But he’d always say hello to anyone walking the hall at the same time- whether that was another state senator or a college student. It should be no surprise that most elected reps were not as friendly.
As a local state senator, his office was always very busy with a lot of folks coming and going. Local elected officials always seemed to be more busy because folks don’t have to go far to meet with them.
One more that I thought was always very friendly to anyone and everyone.
Senator John Land. To me he looked like a guy that you wouldn’t be surprised to have seen walking the halls in the 1800s. He just had that look about him. Maybe it was the white hair. He pulled a prank on me once on the Senate floor and he had a big laugh about it. I laughed too because it was – I guess- about all you could expect of a joke on the Senate floor as it was in session.
He walked up to me and asked me to go grab coffee for another Senator telling me that he wanted his coffee hot and he wanted it now. So I rushed out of the chamber to where the coffee pots were at (small sitting rooms- or what I called a sitting room) right outside the chamber and fetched a cup. I walked back to the Senator that Sen Land had told me wanted the coffee. The Senator was deep in thought looking over some papers on his desk. The Senator clearly didn’t want any coffee and had no idea why I was standing there with a cup in my hand standing over his desk. He waved me off like a fly circling his head, and of course I was a bit embarrassed and as I turned around to walk back out of the chamber to dump the coffee, Senator Land was standing there with a few others laughing out-loud. Apparently the Senator I had tried to give coffee to was a noted coffee hater and was up next to speak on the floor and my intrusion had really aggravated him.
Thankfully, as I looked back at the Senator, he looked up and turned around and could see this was John Land’s idea, not mine. He laughed and waved us both off.
Dumb story but I always liked John Land because of that episode. I just wish I could remember the Senator that didn’t like the coffee.
Another Senator that was very nice to me was Theo Mitchell. I know, I know. But the one or two interactions I had with him I thought he was really nice to someone like me when there was no reason in the world he had to be.
That’s short of the measure of a decent human being: “he was really nice to someone like me when there was no reason in the world he had to be.”
If you can say that about someone, that person is someone I think would be very welcome here on the blog. Such a person would contribute much to building the kind of forum I want us to have here.
You could certainly say it about Joel’s dad. And about Joel, too…