Using his pen, Herman I. Morris made us think
On Monday, we published a letter to the editor from Herman I. Morris, formerly of Santa Fe and now of Plano, Texas. Mr. Morris has been a frequent letter writer, one of our regulars.
His letters, always short, well-reasoned and to the point, have been a welcome addition to our Opinion pages over the years. One day after the letter ran, we read the news that Mr. Morris had died at 91 on Nov. 17. He did not live to see his final letter published.
Writing letters to various newspapers was but one hobby of a busy man. Over his long life, Mr. Morris worked as a teacher, lawyer and professor. As he wrote in one email to us last month, a letter that never was published, “I am a language lover, taught in public school and university. There are not enough adjectives in English to describe Donald Trump, but here are just a few: rich, healthy, smart liar, egotist, petty, vindictive, acquisitive, narcissistic, disrespectful, size 48 long, ad infinitum. Oh, how I long for my creative writing professor Williams at Rice Institute in the ’40s.”
Or, there was his spot-on description of Twitter in this letter from August: “Webster defines tweets as thin, feeble chirping sounds, characteristic of small birds. Maybe we should remember this when we read the president’s tweets, keeping in mind the original meaning and usage, also considering the source.”
In January, there was this gem: “President Donald Trump calls himself a genius, but Abe Lincoln said, ‘No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.’ ”
It is no exaggeration to say that President Donald Trump weighed heavily on Mr. Morris’ thoughts. Consider this letter from early November: “I have a malady called Trumpitis. It is not yet in the Merriam-Webster dictionary but it may be in the next revision. It means simply ‘sick of Donald Trump, what he says and what he does.’ They tell me the ballot box might offer a cure, but the side effects may continue for some time. I am 91 years old and on Medicare. Unfortunately, Trumpitis is not yet covered. I hope and pray I somehow will outlive it.”
He did not, sadly for his friends, family and those of us who enjoyed his take on the craziness of the world. But Mr. Morris was ready for whatever came. In August, he wrote: “I often think of what is ahead, my obituary being one thing. The absolute most important is: ‘He never voted for Donald Trump!’ ”
In addition to favoring us at The New Mexican, Mr. Morris had been writing letters since age 13 to a number of publications. Those included the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Texas newspapers and, of course, The New Mexican. We were in good company.
Many of our readers, we are certain, shared our fondness for letters from Mr. Morris. Despite his decidedly liberal point of view, he was never strident and did not rant.
In an age of rancor, he made his points with wit and good spirit. Rest well, Mr. Morris. We will miss you.