Ex-Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois Dies at 75
Senator Simon was a good legislator, a smart entrepreneur, and a good man, as the obituary above makes very clear. I met him at Augustana late in my senior year, and walked with him across campus. As we rode in the elevator to the small talk he was leading, he told me to continue to care about politics--this was right after the 2000 election--and to do everything I could to help Paul Wellstone get re-elected. In the discussion he led, he remembered my name and where I was moving, and also the names of the other people in the room. He told us not to watch too much TV, an admonishment I hope I have done better at regarding than the one about Wellstone. He made politics seem noble, and saw government as a tool that, properly wielded, could make life better for people.
Today, three years after I met Paul Simon, both he and Wellstone, two consciences of the nation, are dead. They both brought honor to a place that is often acrimonious. They are both missed.
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