My wife told me when I got home today that Art Buchwald had died.
My interest in politics began in elementary school. One of my first heroes on TV was Michael J. Fox's, Alex P. Keaton character on the show Family Ties. From as early as I can remember being aware of politics, I can remember caring about it.
Whether people agree with me or not, I have more respect for people who are willing to talk about politics than I am for those who refuse to take any position.
Ronald Reagan was a hero of mine but so was Art Buchwald. One of the first books I actually purchased on my own was Art Buchwald's, You Can Fool All of the People All of the Time. I was in the 7th grade and I bought the book after seeing an Interview with Buchwald about the book.
I have read about half a dozen of Buchwald's books over the years. I totally hate his politics, but I love his use of words. I loved the way he used humor and exaggeration to make his point.
Most of all I loved how you could tell that he was passionate about politics even though he expressed his views through humor and satire.
In fact, in High School I wrote a political essay for an English class that was taught by our High School newspaper adviser. The assignment was simply to write an essay, I made it political because Art Buchwald had inspired me.
The teacher as impressed enough by my essay that he encouraged me to get involved in the school newspaper. I loved writing for the paper so much that it lead to a college degree in Mass Communication. Now I do a radio show and type a daily commentary on a website.
I also must add that Rick constantly has to remove the little political comments that I make from my articles before they make it onto the website.
The New York Times has posted Art Buchwald's self-obituary. They filmed it before he died. Art Buchwald declares in the opening of the video, "I'm Art Buchwald and I just died."
Most all, I love Art Buchwald because he paved the way for the greatest political humorist and writer who has ever lived, Ann Coulter.
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