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obituary

Jane Jacob (1934–2022): In Memoriam

My mom, Jane Jacob, passed away yesterday, peacefully, at 88 years of age. She was the best person I’ve ever known and she loved life with a passion. I’ll miss her, but she will always be with me.

I could re-title this “My Mom for Heaven,” but as a good friend put it: “I just wish her a good trip; I’m certain her ticket is punched.”  

In her honor, I’m re-publishing this commentary that first appeared on April 14, 2015.

My mom for president
My mom for president

My Mom for President

My musing, yesterday, about Hillary Clinton’s hat throw into the presidential ring failed to recognize that yesterday was also my mother’s 81st birthday.

Jane Jacob is not yet an announced presidential candidate, but when I think of a hard-working, organized, smart and always-optimistic woman — someone who keeps promises and looks out for the other person; someone with commitment to principle — I think of her.

Not Hillary Clinton.

Maybe Mrs. Clinton would have put in the hours playing catch with me as a tyke. But can Hillary even catch? My mom can. And throw too. (Not like a — well, incorrectly, either gender.)

My mom has a soft heart. I remember coming home from school and seeing her crying from watching a soap opera.

Nonetheless, she can dish out tough love. During a family clean-up effort (like a Bataan death march, but in English) she asked if one of us six kids could do something or other. I stepped forward to say, “I’ll try.”

Mom looked at me plainly and explained, “I need someone to do it, Paul, not just try.”

She is still full of fun and passion. Her deep love and concern for America’s freedom has certainly had an enormous impact on my life.

Too bad my mom’s not running.

Hillary Clinton has demonstrated none of the presidential timber my mom has, and yet Clinton is very likely to enjoy a large electoral advantage among women voters. So, here’s my idea: the Democratic Party’s competition should each nominate a woman for the top of the ticket. There are plenty of women qualified to serve as president. Not just my mom.

May the best woman win.

Have I started a stampede to office supply stores to buy binders?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

April 14, 2015


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obituary

Last Respects

Over the weekend, I said goodbye to two friends: Ronn Neff and Mike Gravel.

Ronald Nelson Neff passed away September 26th, at age 72, after “a prolonged illness,” wrote his longtime friend, Tom McPherson, at The Last Ditch, a libertarian/anarchist newsletter the two co-founded.

Neff, a well-respected editor of numerous books and publications throughout his career, was perhaps best known as managing editor of Joe Sobran’s newsletter from 1994 to 2007. Ronn also authored important libertarian essays, including “Polite Totalitarianism.”

Jacob Hornberger, president of The Future of Freedom Foundation, remembered Neff as “one of the most committed, passionate, knowledgeable, and principled libertarians you’d ever meet.”

Ronn was that sort of Christian, too. Before ever meeting him, while I sat in prison for refusing to register for the military draft (1985), he and his wife began tithing each month to help my family. When our car broke down, Neff’s generosity made it possible for my wife and daughter to continue to travel the six hours to visit me.

Yes, there are people like that. 

Mike Gravel died at his California home on June 26th from multiple myeloma. History may remember the 91-year-old best as the courageous Democratic U.S. Senator from Alaska who — five decades ago, during Vietnam — dared to read the Pentagon Papers into the congressional record and filibustered against the military draft. 

In 2008, Gravel decided to advance his political causes by running for president somewhat unconventionally — seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination and later the Libertarian Party’s. 

Then in 2020, at 90, he allowed a group of high school students to use his Twitter feed to run him for president in a “front-porch” campaign. A new documentary about the effort, American Gadfly, is being released later this year.  

I first connected with Mike in the 1990s, when I was running U.S. Term Limits (another issue the two-term senator and I clicked on). Yet, what inspired me most about Gravel was his incredible zeal for direct democracy, for citizens having more say-so through initiative, referendum and recall. 

Instead of the disdain for the public exhibited by so many Washington insiders, Senator Gravel had a profound respect for the people

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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individual achievement obituary

Andrea Millen Rich

It has been hard to find the words to express my sense of loss upon the passing of Andrea Millen Rich, one of the sweetest, most glamorous, and toughest champions of liberty I have ever had the privilege to know. Fortunately, the Cato Institute has produced a beautiful short video in which many of her good friends pay tribute to her achievements, explaining why they benefited so much from their relationships with her.

For many years Andrea was the proprietor of Laissez Faire Books. She also played an important role in the early years of the Libertarian Party, among other things helping to develop the excellent Clark for President television ads in 1980.

Many in the video tribute speak glowingly of Andrea’s wisdom, candor (or “crankiness”), generosity, and ability to bring people together.

Tom Palmer observes that the lives of people all over the world “have been shaped in a positive way by Andrea. I think she was, globally, one of most important libertarian leaders of the last hundred years.”

Jim Powell, David Boaz, Ed Crane, Chris Edwards and Ian Vásquez discuss the role of Laissez Faire Books — with tough negotiator Andrea at the helm — in getting great libertarian books into the hands of people who would have had ready access to them in no other way. The situation has changed, now, in this age of the Internet and Amazon. But in the 1980s and 1990s, Laissez Faire Books — and the enthusiastic and illuminating way its wares were promoted by editors like Roy Childs and Jim Powell — was a lifeline for many friends of liberty.

Sandy Gelfond, Chris Hocker, Anita Anderson and others remember what a loving team Howie and Andrea Rich always were. They had met while working in the Libertarian Party in the early 70s and soon married. “Howie and Andrea always seemed like a perfect, perfect pair,” says Peter Goettler, “and seemed to have such a close and happy partnership. It’s inspiring to the rest of us.”

I can testify to that, having had the honor of working with Howie Rich for most of my adult life — as can my sister, Kathleen Jacob Wikstrom, who wore more than one hat at Laissez Faire Books and worked closely with Andrea for many years. And I will certainly never forget Andrea’s help when I faced prison for refusing to register for the draft, in my early twenties. She was there in my corner — bringing me to New York to speak.

During my lifetime, I have been lucky to know many inspiring people fighting for our freedom. Andrea Millen Rich will long inspire.

This is Common Sense. Thank you, Andrea.

 


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First Amendment rights general freedom individual achievement obituary

A Life Too Short

One lesson from the classic film, It’s a Wonderful Life, is that “Every man’s life touches so many others.”

Every woman’s life does, too.

On Monday, I was stunned and saddened to read in my morning paper that Cornell University President Elizabeth “Beth” Garrett had died, barely a month after being diagnosed with colon cancer, at only 52 years of age.

“Being the first woman president of Cornell, just as I was the first woman provost at U.S.C., puts me in the position of being a role model — not just for young women, but also for men,” she told an interviewer.

While at the University of Southern California, Beth “was the driving force behind the Initiative and Referendum Institute becoming part of USC,” according to my friend, Dane Waters, founder of the Institute.

I met her in the late 1990s. While we certainly were not in full agreement politically, my respect for her intellectual honesty grew and grew. She produced top notch research on the initiative process

And she cared. Years ago, when the Oklahoma Attorney General unsuccessfully sought to persecute myself and two others, Beth Garrett, an Okie native, reached out to lend her moral support.

Reason magazine mourned her passing by calling her “a staunch defender of free speech on campus.”

“There isn’t any idea that ought not to be tested and questioned,” Garrett once told students. “Because that’s how we get closer to the truth. . . . So if you disagree with someone, the answer isn’t to shut them down.”

Beth Garrett lived a wonderful life, leading by example. We’ll miss her.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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ElizaBeth Garrett

 


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crime and punishment general freedom ideological culture individual achievement judiciary media and media people national politics & policies obituary

Life After Scalia

President Reagan appointed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to the nation’s highest court in 1986. Scalia served for 29 years before passing away over the weekend at age 79. May he rest in peace.

None of the rest of us will get any.

Why? An often conservative 5-4 majority is gone. The court is now tied, deadlocked, at 4-4.

“With the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, President Barack Obama will make another nomination to the Supreme Court,” explained an email from the very liberal Democracy for America (I’m on a lot of lists). “It is critically important that President Obama choose a strongly progressive person who can lead the Supreme Court and our country in a new direction.”

That’s Obama’s prerogative, of course. But the president’s nominee must be approved by the United States Senate — controlled 54 to 46 by Republicans.

And guess what?

Almost as fast, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued this statement: “The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”

Now, our Democratic president could negotiate with the Republican Senate majority, come up with a consensus (yeah, right) or compromise choice (watch out).

But don’t hold your breath.

You may also want to plug your ears. There will be shouting. The media will overwhelmingly take Obama’s side — surprise, surprise— and berate Republicans for obstructing.

Republican Senators have a constitutional duty to provide advice and consent to the president’s pick. Unless Mr. Obama’s choice will improve the High Court, those senators should withhold their consent.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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initiative, referendum, and recall local leaders obituary

The Lion of Woodinville

Mike Dunmire passed away last weekend. Mike helped me form the Liberty Initiative Fund, serving as an original board member. But he was best known as a key funder of Tim Eyman’s Washington State ballot initiatives.

Indeed, Eyman’s incredible success at the ballot box — I once called him “America’s Number One Freedom Fighter” — would not have been possible without Dunmire, who was happy to help: “I honestly think he is the only one who gets anything done, and the money could not be better spent.”

Dunmire loved the initiative process. When legislators considered adding a $100 fee for citizens to file a ballot measure, Dunmire eloquently objected:

This hundred dollars may not seem like very much. It will eliminate some people who have fringe ideas. But let me tell you once it was a fringe idea that the world was round. I don’t think we want to suppress these ideas, and I think that all this bill does is buy a tremendous amount of ill will. . . . You maybe will make $10,000 off of this, but you stick a finger in every citizen’s eye. . . .

A native of Woodinville, Washington, he balanced humility with wit, hard work with compassion. He once jokingly introduced himself as “the Woodinville Think Tank President” at a legislative hearing.

“Although starting out with very little, I’ve been fortunate,” Mike once wrote. “I live in the most beautiful state in the union, I have my health, a wife I love, and had a career that brought me financial success. I’ve supported many philanthropic efforts during my life. In recent years, I’ve supplemented my ‘normal’ charitable giving by supporting political efforts to hold government more accountable.”

Mike Dunmire remains alive in the hearts of all those he helped.

This is Common Sense. I’m glad I knew you, Mike.