William F. Buckley Jr. 1925-2008

By now everyone knows that William F. Buckley has passed away. & everyone has been telling stories of what a great conservative hero he was. This is all true. So, I won't bother to go over what everyone else has said. Instead, I decided to take a cue from Rush Limbaugh & share some personal memories. Some of these are my perceptions, some are how I saw others perceive him, sometimes humorously.

I'll admit that I 1st heard of Bill Buckley indirectly. I am not sure, but I seriously think that the 1st time I actually began paying attention to him was because of David Frye's comedy albums. For those of you who don't remember him, David Frye was a very talented impressionist who did a wicked LBJ & an even wickeder Richard Milhous Nixon. & while he did exagerate a bit on Buckley's inimitable style of speech, he actually had him down quite well.

I also heard his name in the news. When my part of Iowa finally got a Public TV station (Iowa Educational Broadcasting Network in those days) I occasionally watched Firing Line. I'll be honest, most of the time I found it boring, that was because most of the topics didn't interest me at the time. Youth is often stupid & doesn't always appreciate what it has. I'm sure that now those same programs would hold my attention a lot more. In retrospect, I am surprized he ever made it on public TV at all. But back then the elite left didn't have the control it does now.

I also remember him as the victim of a phone call or 2 from Ernestine the Telephone operator (Lily Tomlin). She always called him William Fuhbuckley, making his middle inital a part of his surname.

As I got to know him better, even in my Democratic days, I had respect for him. He was no slouch & was very erudite. & as time went on, my respect for him grew. Even in recent years I still didn't always agree with him.

He will long be rmembered & sorely missed in our national dialog.

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