Political Quotes

“I note with sorrow the passing of Roger Kennedy last Friday. Roger had a long and storied career that exemplified notions of public service. He was, indeed, a renaissance man. It's hard to think of anything that Roger had not done in his lifetime, with the possible exception of hold elective office. He was Director of the National Park Service, Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, vice president of finance for the Ford Foundation. He was special assistant to three Cabinet Secretaries, a lawyer, a journalist, and somehow found time to write 10 books. Actually, he had run unsuccessfully for Congress against fellow Minnesotan Gene McCarthy over 60 years ago. How might history have been different if he had won. You found out about Roger's exploits in bits and pieces. When you were engaged in conversation, he would reach back into the past to illustrate points with very tangible, concrete, easy-to-understand examples, often with himself having been in the middle of it. My legislative director, Janine Benner, and I became acquainted with Roger as we were dealing with policies to prevent, cope, and recover from natural disasters. One of Roger's books was titled ``Wildfire and Americans: How to Save Lives, Property, and Your Tax Dollars.'' His kind words mentioning us by name in the acknowledgement was a high point of both of our careers. He was a valued participant in sessions we would have before and after Hurricane Katrina.…”