Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Farewell to a Statesman

Senator Ted Stevens, 86, of Alaska, was killed in a plane crash in southwestern Alaska last night.

In a way, I'm speechless. He was the type of man I expected to live forever. He served in the US Senate from 1968 until 2008 when a very public fraud trial forced his loss in the senate election. He was convicted, but the conviction was later vacated because of prosecutorial misconduct, whatever that means.

Senator Stevens was in a plane crash before, in 1978. His first wife Ann died in that crash. Even before that, he expressed the belief that he would some day die in a plane crash.

For those who grew up being represented by this Senator, it is no surprise that he cheated a slow, pedestrian death. He lived his life in big Alaskan fashion, and he died that way, too.

1 comment:

Papa John said...

Alaska and Alaskans have lost a good friend and an accomplished public servant. My own contact with the man often called "Uncle Ted" was when I directed the Annual Alaska Boy's State Program in Achorage. The Senator, who was always unbelieveably busy in WDC, somehow found time to be in state to spend a morning with the Boy's State Delegates, two of whom would later have the chance to attend Boy's Nation and apply to serve in the Senate as a paige sponsored by the Senator.

I found him to be a gentle man, easy to talk to, partly because he was also a willing listener. The boy, of course, were especially impressed when he remembered by name very student he met during his visits. His explainations of how government works were most impressive and surpassed the efforts of all my history teachers combined.

I'm glad you got to meet him too, Patty.

Ted Stevens was good for Alaska. He was a statesman worth his salt. His kind are rare and sorely needed in today's wretched political world.