July 12, 2008

(Columbia) - I am crying.

I'm sorry. I wish I could be stronger about this, but I just can't. I can almost not see the keyboard: Tony Snow is dead, and I just can't help myself.

I only met him once and it was a long time ago, and I'm very certain he wouldn't have remembered me, had we met again. I don't care. His death has caused me to be as sad as when my Dad died two years ago.

Of all the people who has lost a fight with the Reaper, why Tony? He was a good man - a genuinely good man.

Never mind that he was scrupulously honest as a journalist. Never mind that he always told the truth as the White House News Guy. Never mind that he was a clear-thinking intellectual who could make an idea so simple everyone could understand it. Never mind that he was a wonderfully warm, yet fascinating talkshow host. Never mind any of that.

Tony Snow was a good man. An his goodness kept him young. Ask his wife. Ask his children. Ask his God. They will tell you that Tony loved them and that his love made them better and greater and more understandable. They say only the good die young. Maybe so. He was good when he didn't have to be. His goodness kept him young and so he died young.

But these are only clever words. Tony's dead, and I hate it that he is. And I'm crying. God help us all.

We really didn't need this.

- Dick Anderson