Thursday, November 16, 2006

A Tribute

This morning, I learned that my great uncle Douglas Worthington passed away, and I am saddened, though I only met him once, though I was looking forward to seeing him again on Thanksgiving. He fought in WWII and devoted his life to teaching. In fact, he had a good career of it and was even able to assist my mother after my grandfather died. I only met him once, but as I serve in the Army and plan to teach in NYC, I feel I am carrying on a part of his legacy, and from what my mother told me, he has two grandchildren in the Army and I hope they will be there for Thanksgiving dinner as well. But another man died today as well, and while I was never fortunate enough to meet him, he had an impact on my life in other ways. In College I was an Economics and Finance double major, and one Economist I heard about very favorably was Milton Friedman. Today, Milton Friedman died at 94, so he lived to a ripe age blessing generations with his wisdom, and undoubtedly his wisdom and philosophy had a tremendous effect on my Education at Loyola's Business School. I consider myself a conservative in the model of Barry Goldwater, and in a sense I could be regarded as a liberal in the regard of Milton Friedman. Of course both of these great men helped define libertarianism. Also, both my Uncle Doug and Milton Friedman were born in Brooklyn, and they both died of heart failure. Andrew Sullivan has a wonderful tribute to this great and wonderful man, through you tube. Requiest in Pacem, Douglas and Milton. I hardly had a chance to know either of you, but you both have an influence in my life that is ultimately for the better.

1 comment:

Red Tulips said...

What a loving tribute. Thanks for this fantastic post, Thomas.