Obit: U.S. Senator Paul Simon (1928-2003)

Subject: RE: Obit: U.S. Senator Paul Simon
From: Big Mick
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 11:32 AM

I am blessed to have been able to meet many of the people that we read about, and so it was with Senator Simon. This was a gentle man with great love and passion for the causes he espoused. One of those rare people who lived his values. Many names have been thrown out in comparison, but he belongs in an even more select group. I would put him in a group that only includes one other member of Congress, Congressman Phil Hart. These men were the conscience of Congress. I am not denigrating the other names mentioned, great and honorable legislators all, but these two were special.

Paul Simon, the singer, certainly has made great contributions to our music, but Paul Simon, the Senator, made great contributions to our conscience and the quality of life we live.

I congratulate him on a life well lived and wish him well on the next leg of the journey.

With greatest respect,

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: U.S. Senator Paul Simon
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 07:20 AM

Well, I for one thought of the Senator, right off and I am sorry to hear of his passing. I had a lot of respect for him. He had a lot of integrity.

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: U.S. Senator Paul Simon
From: Cllr
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 05:53 AM

Leadfingers does a great version of The boxer Err I mean The Folkie. Is your wrist better yet? Cllr

Subject: RE: Obit: U.S. Senator Paul Simon
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 05:34 AM

OK I know it wasnt in good taste but when I saw the name in the Obits I nearly dropped the Paper.And yes I am a Brit.I just wondered how many people would jumpt to the same initial conclusion that I did.

And By The Way - I do sing Paul simon's songs on occasions.

Subject: RE: Obit: U.S. Senator Paul Simon
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 02:44 AM

Oh, I certainly like Paul Simon's music. I guess I'd even say he is a favorite of mine. His "Rhythm of the Saints" was the last album I really enjoyed, but I liked every single one before that.

But Senator Paul Simon comes from a line of wise, solid U.S. Senators that is fast disappearing. Who will replace Walter Mondale, George McGovern, Hubert Humphrey, Alan Cranston, and Bill Proxmire? They and many others did a lot to pull this country away from the McCarthy era. They started retiring over the last ten or fifteen years, and most of the politicans who have replaced them are garden-variety political opportunists.

But despite my respect for Senator Paul Simon, I think it's time to move him down to the non-music side of the Forum.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: GUEST,Himself
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 10:38 PM

Hey Jo...
          I think Paul Simon,musician,is a man of great integrity too.What he has done is of great value to me and others.I will take to my dying day the delight in seeing my 18 month old son( 14 years ago) dancing ecstatically to Graceland. Can't see why his contribution is less than than Paul Simon,politition ; just different.
                  Have a wonderful holiday

                               Robin

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 10:37 PM

I agree=bad thread.john

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: Mickey191
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 10:17 PM

Bloody cruel-Even though I knew the senator died-I still thought of the "Genius Writer." Kinda Mean!

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: Strupag
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 10:02 PM

I saw this thread and I was shocked. I think this thread is using the fame of another person to attract interest
I really think it's time to drop this thread.

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 09:37 PM

So what happened about the visas?

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: Melani
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 09:10 PM

For what it's worth, there is some relation to a music thread here. Some years ago there was a flap about the criteria being used to grant H-1 visas, the type needed by musicians from other countries who want to tour in the US. I believe it was the Reagan administration who decided that to be granted an H-1 visa, a musician must be outstanding in the field of music in general; i.e., as well-known internationally as somebody like Frank Sinatra or Louis Armstrong or...you get the picture. This would of course exclude most of the folk musicians I personally would be interested in seeing, even though they might be considered outstanding in the field of, say, Celtic music. The issue was publicized in one of the local alternative papers, and all concerned were encouraged to write to key legislators. One of them was Paul Simon, who was rumored to be fond of folk music. Or maybe it was just that he wwas on the right committee. Anyway, he was a good guy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: GUEST,harpy
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:43 PM

If you meant it as a joke it was a crappy one, LF. Paul Simon
( a musical genius who brought the world many hours of pure pleasure)
is on tour with Art Garfunckle this week in Flori-duh and a lot of my friends went to see him. The senator was a rare bird. Are you a Brit?

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:28 PM

He was awful damn cute in his bow tie, too.

~S~

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:26 PM

Here's the obituary from the Washington Post. Senator Simon died December 9. He had quite a reputation for integrity. We could use a few more like him.
I was going to change the thread title to Senator Paul Simon and move it to the non-music side of the Forum, but I guess we can leave it here until later this evening. In many ways, this Paul Simon was far more impressive than the musician. Take a moment to read about him.
-Joe Offer-

---

Paul Simon, 75, Dies; 2-Term Illinois Senator

By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 10, 2003; Page B06

Paul Simon, the Illinois Democrat, former two-term senator and presidential candidate whose horn-rimmed, bow-tied conservatism was balanced by a social liberalism, died Dec. 9 at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Ill., a day after undergoing heart surgery. He was 75.

Mr. Simon retired from the Senate in 1997 after a career that took him from crusading newspaperman to presidential candidate in just over 40 years. He failed in a primary bid for Illinois governor in 1974 and dropped out of the 1988 presidential primaries after winning only his home state. But he won reelection to both state and national legislative bodies, sometimes just squeaking through.

A "pay-as-you-go" lawmaker, Mr. Simon long championed a balanced-budget amendment, quoting his political mentor, Sen. Paul Douglas of Illinois: "To be a liberal doesn't mean you're a wastrel." But he was also the sponsor of a single-payer health insurance bill in the Senate and was one of only three senators to vote against holding public hearings in 1995 in the Whitewater investigation involving the financial dealings of President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Government is not the enemy," he said in 1988. "Government is simply a tool that can be used wisely or unwisely."

The son of a Lutheran missionary, Mr. Simon disclosed his personal finances in the 1950s, long before it was fashionable, and sponsored the first open-meetings law in Illinois. His demeanor was so strait-laced that he earned the nickname "Reverend" while he serving in the Illinois legislature from 1955 until 1968.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, a Republican from Illinois, said that Mr. Simon was "a distinguished statesman who was a man of great integrity and honor, a gentleman who cared deeply for his constituents and his country."

Born Nov. 29, 1928, in Eugene, Ore., after his parents returned from missionary work in China, Mr. Simon enrolled in the University of Oregon to study journalism but transferred to Dana College in Blair, Neb., when his parents moved to southern Illinois. In 1948, he dropped out of college, borrowed $3,600 and bought a failing weekly newspaper in Troy, Ill., a town of about 1,500 near St. Louis. He became the nation's youngest editor-publisher at the time. He eventually built a chain of 14 weekly newspapers, which he sold in 1966.

From 1951 until 1953, Mr. Simon served in the U.S. Army. He was assigned to the Counter-Intelligence Corps as a special agent along the Iron Curtain in Europe.

He was elected lieutenant governor of Illinois in 1968 and appeared to be the heir apparent for governor after Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley tapped him for the nomination in 1972 against a Republican incumbent who had enacted the state's first income tax. But he lost the primary to a corporate lawyer, Dan Walker, in what Illinois politicians called an anti-Daley backlash.

For the next two years, Mr. Simon taught at Sangamon State University in Springfield, Ill., and at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was elected to Congress in 1974 and represented a southern Illinois district for 10 years. In 1984, he took on three-term GOP Sen. Charles Percy, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, accusing Percy of personally benefiting from the Reagan tax cuts and casting him as the candidate of "country clubs and boardrooms." He won, 50 to 48 percent. Six years later, Mr. Simon faced a reelection challenge from Rep. Lynn Martin, a Republican. Mr. Simon won with 65 percent of the vote.

As a senator, he helped overhaul the federal student loan program to allow students to borrow directly from the government. He also crusaded against television violence, forcing the industry to account for how much violence appeared on the small screen.

But his attempt to win the Democratic nomination for president in 1988 faltered. One of his 22 books was about the campaign.

Two of his books were published in October, including "Our Culture of Pandering," in which he wrote: "In too many areas we have spawned 'leadership' that does not lead, that panders to our whims rather than telling us the truth, that follows the crowd rather than challenging us, that weakens us rather than strengthening us."

On retiring from the Senate, Mr. Simon became founder and director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

He underwent heart surgery for the first time in 1999 when he had a coronary artery bypass to correct blockages in six arteries. On Thursday, he was hospitalized for shortness of breath, but from his hospital bed, he carried through with a planned endorsement of Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean.

His first wife, Jeanne, died of brain cancer in 2000. They had met in the Illinois legislature, where she was one of the first female legislators, married in 1960 and honeymooned at the Democratic National Convention.

In 2001, he married Patricia Derge, who had served on the state's Constitutional Convention and who taught high school government.

Survivors also include two children, Sheila Simon of Carbondale, Ill., and Martin Simon of Crofton, and two stepchildren.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: Amos
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:25 PM

You sonnofagun!! You had me going for a sec! :>_)


A

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: Folkiedave
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:18 PM

Interestingly (despite I am in UK) he connections with Watergate - as I remember his son was a connection of Bernstein.

Regards,

Dave
www.collectorsfolk.co.uk

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:18 PM

not sure if this thread was meant as joke, but i didnt find it funny.

Subject: RE: Obit: Paul Simon
From: David Ingerson
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:07 PM

I must admit that I bit on this one, even though I had known that Senator Paul Simon had died recently. Just not putting 2 and 2 together.

David

Subject: Obit: Paul Simon
From: Leadfingers
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:04 PM

I couldnt resist posting this one - The Senator who lost the Democratic nomination to Michel Dukakis in 1988 has just died aged 75.
He has an Obit in todays (23rd Dec) Telegraph.