Irreconcilable differences plague politics these days
There was a time when politicians sat down to work out differences
Journalists meet a variety of news makers during their careers. Many of them make statements that remain in one’s memory bank for years, if not decades.
Two such conversations have not left my memory bank because of their logic and relevance long after they were uttered.
One involved a conversation with Manuel Lujan Jr., the astute and credible Republican congressman who represented New Mexico with integrity for 20 years from 1969 until 1989, the year President George H.W. Bush named him Secretary of the Interior. Lujan’s record of service was honesty, hard work, efficiency.
By chance while on a visit to Albuquerque several years ago I ran into Lujan after his retirement from the Washington political scene. During our conversation I asked if he missed Washington. His answer still resonates today.
“No,” he replied. “It’s not the same as it was when I was in Congress. Yes, there were Democrats and Republicans and we had our differences, but we sat down and worked out a solution.” Yes, things are different now. Quite different! Now we have Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas harshly criticizing his fellow Republican senator, Marco Rubio of Florida, for daring to even talk to a Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, about seeking a solution to the complex and divisive immigration issue facing this country today.
The other remembered statement was made in a conversation in 1967 with Archbishop Iakovos, then head of the Greek Orthodox Christian Church in America. It was Iakovos who in 1965 marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., to call attention to racial discrimination.
In our conversation, the archbishop said, “Fanaticism is bad in everything, including religion.” If you look at the turmoil in the world today caused by radicalism based on illogical religious interpretation you realize how perceptive he was.
Add the political inefficiency pointed out by Lujan to Iakovos’ statement about fanaticism, I wonder if the archbishop, who died in 2005 at the age of 93, were alive today if he would revise his statement to read “... including religion and politics.”