SHIELDS

From page 4

tions allegedly authorized by Jones’ 2002 vote. By the time of his death, Jones had written 11,266 such letters to grieving families. The letters were intimate and respectful. He sought to comfort by writing that someone in power was understanding of the pain and loss they have endured.

An anti-war, pro-peace Republican, the independent Jones — who dared to vote for the Dodd-frank Wall Street reforms and to overturn the Citizens United decision, which legalized the flood of corporate millions into campaigns — was denied by GOP leaders the committee chairmanship to which his seniority entitled him. In Donald Trump’s Washington, where the formula for personal advancement is too often, sadly, both to suck up (by fawning on and flattering the powerful) and to kick down (by exploiting and even abusing those less powerful), Walter Jones was the polar opposite. Jones afflicted the too-comfortable, comforted the already afflicted. R.I.P.

To find out more about Mark Shields and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.