Mark Shields’ generosity of spirit

Every Friday evening for the last 19 years, Mark Shields and I have gathered to talk politics on the “PBSNewsHour.” Whenpeople come up tometo discuss our segment, sometimes they mention the thingswe said to each other, but more often they mention howwe clearly feel about each other— the affection, friendship and respect. We’ve had thousands of disagreements over the years but never a second of acrimony. Mark radiates a generosity of spirit that improves allwho come within his light.

Thisweek, at 83, and after 33 years total on the show, Mark announced hewas stepping back fromhis regular duties. Fridaywas our final regular segment together. Iwant to not only pay tribute to him here but also to capture his conception of politics, because it’s different from the conceptionmany people carry in their heads these days.

We are all imprinted as children and young adults with certain ideas about the world, which stay with us for the rest of our lives. Mark, likemanywhocame of age in the 1950s and 1960s— including JoeBiden— was imprintedwith the idea that politics is a deeply noble profession, a form of service, a vocation.

Mark’s fatherwas the first Catholic to serve on their town’s school board. The first timehe sawhis mother crywaswhen Adlai Stevenson lost to Dwight Eisenhower. Markwentoff toNotreDameand then served in theMarine Corps, before working as a congressional aide.

Thiswas the mid-’60s. Mark had served with BlackMarines because HarryTrumanhad the courage to integrate the military. Mark sawthe passage of theVoting RightsAct in 1965, the Fair HousingAct of 1968.

Therewasnever amomentwhenpassing this stuffwas easy, but everybody took for granted the legitimacy of the system, treasuredthe countryandtheway it worked.“Thetwohallmarks ofAmerican politics areoptimismandpragmatism,” Mark toldmethisweek, pointing to the optimismofFDR, JFKandRonaldReagan.

To this dayMark argues that politics is about looking for converts, not punishing heretics. You pass bills and win campaigns by bending to accommodate those whose votes can be gotten.

Hewent on towork on and run political campaigns, for people like Bobby Kennedy and EdMuskie. He came to deeply respect those heworked to elect, including presidential candidateMo Udall: “Just a great human being.” Vice presidential candidate Sargent Shriver: “He had the best relations with his family of any candidate I have known. His kids revered him.” AndGov. Jack Gilligan of Ohio: He “believed in us more thanwe believed in ourselves.”

After decades in journalism, Mark still puts the character lens before the partisan lens. He has been quick to criticizeDemocrats when they are snobbish, dishonest or fail to live up to the standards of basic decency.

Mark instinctively identifies with the underdog. Every year he invitesmeto do an event with him with Catholic social workers. These are peoplewhoserve the poor and live among the poor. They have really inexpensive clothing and really radiant faces, and in their lives you see the embodiment of an entire moral system, Catholic social teaching, which has its service arm and, inMark, its political and journalistic arm.

He comes froma generation that highly prized egalitarian manners: I’m no better than anyone else, and nobody is better thanme. LikeBiden, condescension is foreign to his nature. As everybody at the “NewsHour” can attest, he treats everybody with equal kindness.

Whenyouwork with somebody this long, you remember little things. One story sticks inmy mind. In 2004, theRed Sox fell behind theNewYorkYankees three games to none in the American League Championship Series. The Sox miraculouslywon the next four games and took the series. Markwent to a bunch of those games, including the final one at Yankee Stadium.

After that gameMark lingered in his seat. Memories flooded over him as sweet tears flowed— a lifetime of games with his mother and father, this magnificent victory they never got to see, the century of heartbreaks nowovercome. Mark and the other Sox fans just sat there, refusing to leave, absorbing this newvictorious feeling, a hint of justice in the universe.

I like to think thatwas God’sway of saying,“Well done, good and faithful servant.”