In Impromptus today, I discuss Iran, China, and India. And American politics. And “legacy admissions.” And so on. By the way, not many have a good word to say about legacy admissions at the moment. I do.
Some mail?
In yesterday’s Impromptus, I began with some thoughts on apologies. The chairman of the Florida Republican Party had said — he was advising Moms for Liberty — “Never apologize. Ever. This is my view. Other people have different views on this. I think apologizing makes you weak.”
A reader writes,
Dear Jay,
During my 50 years in the investment business, I lived by a simple adage that also applies to life: “Wise men admit their mistakes, fools defend them.”
Another reader writes,
Dear Jay,
. . . My mom was not someone who apologized, really, but she did when it was needed. One of my most vivid memories of her is from my fifth-grade year. I did something that made her furious (with cause!), and she lost her temper. My parents had strict guidelines for discipline, but she broke them. I was shocked. Later she came and apologized. Not for disciplining me, but for losing her temper and breaking the guidelines.
That moment stands out to me because I saw my mom take responsibility for her actions. To clarify, she didn’t harm me, no abuse involved. (My rear hurt, but not as much as the shock did.) Mom didn’t apologize if she didn’t believe she was wrong, but seeing her do it when she was wrong gave me an example of what a strong person should be.
That was about five decades ago, and she’s been gone now for 22 years, but it’s still a touchstone moment for me.
In yesterday’s column, I had a picture of Barry Goldwater and some comments on him. A reader sent me a letter he received from the senator in July 1960. (A photo of the letter.) It is on the stationery of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Our reader was volunteering for the reelection campaign of Senator Leverett A. Saltonstall of Massachusetts — “Salty in Sixty.” Goldwater wrote,
. . . I am asking Chuck Colson, Senator Saltonstall’s Administrative Assistant, to furnish you with a load of political ammunition for use in the Massachusetts campaign this fall. The Senator’s re-election is a must and I intend to leave no stone unturned to accomplish this task.
Colson worked for Salty? If I ever knew it, I’d forgotten it.
Goldwater continued,
It shall be a real pleasure to autograph “Conscience of a Conservative” for you, so just send it on, and I’ll get it back to you by return mail.
Nice.
Further,
It is encouraging to me to know that young men like yourself are awake to the erosion that is taking place today in America. We must preserve our fundamental constitutional principles or face liquidation of the Republic.
I love that word “awake” — “awake to.” Always have. Nowadays, however, people are apt to say, “Oh, ‘woke,’ huh?”
Finally,
Thanks again for your offer to aid the cause of good sound government.
So old-fashioned, so wonderful. “Good sound government” is what we need (rather than a burn-it-down mentality).
In an Impromptus on Monday, I had a note on Martin Luther King. His sister Christine has just died at 95. I wrote,
If King were alive today, he would not be the oldest living Nobel peace laureate — it would still be Henry Kissinger. King seems such a distant figure, because he was murdered, at 39, so long ago.
A reader writes to say that he was always struck by something: Martin Luther King, Anne Frank, and Barbara Walters (who died last year at 93) were all born the same year.
Thank you to one and all, and see you later.