Alan Simpson has left this good Earth after spending a career in public life trying to make it a better place.
The U.S. senator from Wyoming wasn’t exactly the kind of public official I would have voted for had I been given the chance. However, he symbolized a bygone era that allowed politicians of vastly different points of view to remain friends even after they tussled over policy issues.
Simpson, who died yesterday at age 93, was as conservative as they come. He also was a good-hearted man who was able to maintain close friendships with the likes of he late Ted Kennedy, the Senate’s renowned “liberal lion,” with whom he fought over policy matters.
The Wyoming senator also was the subject of Tom Brokaw’s book, “The Greatest Generation.” Brokaw told the story of how young Alan befriended a boy who had been sent to Wyoming after the U..S. entered World War II. Robert Matsui was a Japanese-American who’s only “sin” was to be of Japanese descent. The government rounded up hundreds of thousands of Americans and sent them to camps away from the Pacific Coast.
Matsui and Simpson got acquainted through the chain link fence and the razor wire that kept young Bobby locked up. They retained their friendship once they both entered Congress, Simpson as the conservative from Wyoming and Matsui as the liberal from California.
Alan Simpson embodied one of the essential qualities of good government. He was able to set personal friendships aside to debate political matters. When the debate ended, he joined his friends on the other side and had a good laugh.