The pen is mightier than the sword ..

G'bye Mr. Safire

William Safire, an Op-Ed columnist for the NY Times since 1973, wrote his last column today. Safire , formerly a senior speech writer for Nixon, was one of the few "conservative" columnists who wrote for the Times. Although he was conservative and a Republican supporter, his political leanings were more to the center than some of todays "right-wing" columnists. He didn't hesistate to take a stand and write about issues he felt strongly about.. he criticized people he disagreed with without being abusive (a pretty rare phenomenon today). This made his columns good reading even if I disagreed with most of what he said in his political columns. His columns about protecting the freedom of press and about the Tsunami were wonderful. I didn't like the column he wrote last week about Bush's inaugural speech.. the only thing I agreed with was that it could be called the " Freedom Speech" (because he used the word freedom so many times), but it definitely was not among the top 5 inaugural speeches in history!
Safire's written 3 columns today , of which the column titled " Never Retire" is a must read. I thought it was well written and truly inspiring.
Adios Mr. Safire .. and Never Retire!

posted by mightypen @ 1:10 PM