How am I doin'?

I first met Ed Koch at a sleezy second-floor hole-in-the-wall Democrat club on 14th Street at the corner of Third Avenue sometime in the late 1970's.  He was running for mayor of New York City and I was a starry-eyed liberal youth ... thinking I could have some effect on politics.  There couldn't have been more than 10 people assembled there to hear this upstart politician outline for about 2 hours his hopes for the City ... and I'm sure he must have repeated this gig every night for many months.  I don't remember his issues or his platform, but I did like what he said and how he said it. And I did vote for him and tried to convince many of my friends to do likewise.  Amazingly, he won.

Over the years since then he occasionally would be interviewed in the national media about political happenings in the city and around the country and, although our core politics diverged dramatically, I still very often agreed with his perspective.  In fact, I think he spoke at a recent Republican convention ... not so surprising.  His logic and understanding of the human condition befitted his age and experience.

Some say he was gay.  I don't give a rap.  He was a decent man who spoke his mind and played few of the political games that we see all too often today.  And he would often greet constituents with his catch phrase, "How am I doin'?  Mr. Mayor, for my money, you did OK.

R.I.P.