I just wanted to take a minute of your time to note the passing of a man who might not otherwise get attention on e2.
Massachusetts Democratic Representative
John Joseph Moakley, in his sixteenth term, died today of
leukemia at age 74. Nowadays, it’s popular to lambaste politicians on both sides of the aisle, but we forget that some of them are actually there to
serve the public, a concept so alien to people that it illicits laughter when I try to talk to them about it because they can’t imagine anyone being sincere about such a thing.
I’ll admit that I don’t know much about Moakley, but what I’ve read makes me thing he’s a decent guy. One thing that impresses me is that he headed up the investigation into the deaths of six
Jesuit priests in
El Salvador in
1989. While the
White House sent our money there and apologized for raping and murdering thugs, Moakley’s commission was responsible for cutting US aid to that country, which may have ended the civil war there.
Not everybody’s in it for the money.