The Rational Mr. Raspberry

By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl At the end of 2005, William Raspberry, the award-winning national newspaper columnist, decided to hang up his pen after 40 years of writing for the Washington Post. One hopes that Raspberry, a self-described Democrat, will not mind a Republican United States Senator taking a moment to celebrate his work. For while Ive never met William Raspberry, Ive collected more than a few pearls of Raspberry wisdom over the years. What Ive appreciated about Raspberrys take on things is that his common sense and decency tended to shine through, no matter the topic. True, hes sent plenty of barbs in the direction of the current administration, earlier Republican administrations, and lawmakers who hold political views unlike his own. But his critiques have been thoughtful, well-stated, and founded in a desire to see black people advance in American life, to unite citizens of all races, and to make our country better. Raspberry carved a niche for himself as a forthright and sincere commentator even when it meant criticizing his own side. His is the eloquence of the honest liberal - one who, at frequent intervals, expressed honest chagrin at what liberalism came to mean over the decades. Ill give an example from a 1993 column I saved on the relation of church and state, where he lamented his sides exaggeratedly secular views. He wrote: The people I still consider the societys ˜good guys - political liberals - already have abandoned patriotism, moral uprightness and other public virtues to the tender mercies of the conservatives. The religious intolerance of the intellectual left now threatens to leave the right wing as the foremost defender of religion. That was a terrible prospect, in Raspberrys view, both for partisan reasons - how would his side ever win majority support from an American people famous for their religiosity? - and for moral and social reasons: Virtually every commentator on the current scene, he said, bemoans the increased violence, lowered ethical standards and loss of civility that marks the American society. Is the decline of religious influence no part of what is happening to us? Is it not just possible that anti-religious bias masquerading as religious neutrality is costing more than we have been willing to acknowledge? Good questions. Raspberrys attitude toward the rise of conservatism in America, and its accession to the corridors of power in Washington, combined wistfulness, respect, toughness (when he disagreed with conservatives or believed they were straying from their principles), and intellectual curiosity. The ferment of ideas on the right energized him; he grappled with those ideas in his column so that we might get the benefit of his struggle to reach fair and rational judgments on the controversies that roiled Washington and the nation. Charles Murray is disturbing in a way other social iconoclasts are not, he began a 1993 column on the noted conservative social scientists analysis of the underclass. Disturbing, he meant, because Murray could drag you, kicking and screaming, much closer to where you thought youd never go. Reluctantly but with his characteristic candor, the columnist said the prevalence of illegitimate births in the United States must be reduced, and admitted that the welfare system was contributing heavily to the problem. Welfare should be opened up to a desperately needed debate, he wrote, or else millions of our fellow Americans would never be able to rise out of conditions of poverty and ignorance. It is no surprise that Raspberrys retirement plans entail public service. Hes founded an educational organization in his home town of Okolona, Mississippi that he hopes to nurture into prominence. The aim of the group, called Baby Steps, is to restore a belief in the transforming power of education to parents who have lost that belief. The newspaper-reading public at large has benefited from the debating, thinking, challenging, and searching of William Raspberry. As he takes on a new mission, school children and parents in Mississippi will benefit as well. Mr. Raspberry, heres wishing you a happy and productive retirement.