. . . for Houston.
THE ONLY ADULT on the Houston Chronicle editorial board, David Langworthy, retires this month. He is a Republican moderate -- the only representative of either category on the board.
When in recent years you have read a common-sense editorial about almost anything, he's the one who wrote it. Or so I, lacking inside information, believe.
This I certainly know: He's a good, smart, decent man, and the newspaper will be a worse place, far worse, for his leaving.
In the lexicon of the Chronicle, Mr. Langworthy was the house conservative. Sadly, he . . .
. . . was no such thing. As readers of Unca D well know, our local newspaper entertains precisely zero conservative opinion. No conservative local columnists. No conservative editorial writers. No conservative local cartoonists. No conservative nothing, except the occasional Krauthammer.
But Mr. Langworthy was immensely valuable, nonetheless. As a thoughtful Republican moderate, he would have been a perfect arbiter between left and right. A whole board of Langworthys would have been worth reading.
Unfortunately for him (more so, for us), all other editorial writers during his tenure, at least after the retirement of Bill Coulter, proudly and exclusively occupied (and still occupy) the opinion spectrum between the soft left and the hard left. On politics. On economics. On culture. On religion. On everything.
The Houston Chronicle editorial board without Mr. Langworthy will at last reach the state of purity toward which it has long aspired. It will become a monoculture of Progressives.
Remarkably, in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Langworthy's finest moment, in my view, again without benefit of inside information, was when he restored the practice of saying nice things about civic holidays revered by normal Americans, the big three being Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July.
The radical left largely abhors these days, generally disagrees with the ideas and values they express, and can barely disguise its contempt for people who take them seriously. False consciousness and all that. For many years, the Chronicle either ignored or mocked these holidays, ostentatiously and proudly so.
Why is it important for a mainstream daily newspaper to respectfully acknowledge these holidays?
Many reasons. To show solidarity with readers. To pledge allegiance to a core set of values and historical experiences. To say, "Whatever our disagreements about the issues of the day, we agree on the things that are important. On this day, let's lay down our arms and celebrate together."
The Chronicle defiantly would not do these things, precisely because it opposes the core ideas and values of most readers and understands the common historical experiences in a far different way. Because it disagrees, not only on the issues of the day but on what is important. Because it would never think of laying down its arms, not for one minute, to celebrate anything with the likes of you and me.
Mr. Langworthy, so I believe, somehow won authority over the holidays. Beginning two or three years ago, he restored a sense of calm, decency, and respect. While the others muttered imprecations under their breath, or so I believe, he quietly and professionally led the newspaper out of the sophomore dorm rooms where it generally resides, intellectually, and back into the land of adults.
I offer the holidays as an example, a symbol, a picture of his quality and character, not as the sole argument in Mr. Langworthy's praise.
Mr. Langworthy's voice of reason could also be heard, or so I believe, on the issues of the day. When any editorial took serious things seriously, it was a good bet that Mr. Langworthy wrote it. When an editorial was shrill and thoughtless, you knew someone else's fingers were on the keyboard.
Now that Mr. Langworthy is departing, the board lacks a single dissenting voice, except to the extent that more-radical leftists generally tend to dissent from less-radical leftists. There's certainly no one left with a smidge of human sympathy for you, me, or anyone like us, or intellectual sympathy with our ideas and values.
Pity.
To Mr. Langworthy, thanks for your good service to your readers, your newspapers, and your city, state, and nation. We'll miss you. May the wind be fair at your back.
* * *
Oh, and by the way, the fuzzy photograph depicts Mr. Langworthy as out-of-focus quarterback, not quite yet an adult, of a first-rate four-boy football team from Angleton, Texas, circa 1958. The roster includes a neighbor (Richard), my brother (Danny), and Mr. Langworthy's brother (Timmy).
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