RIP Tom Schweich, Missouri candidate for govenor & a high school friend of mine

[mshray]

If you want to know how fucked up Republican politics are in Missouri (and elsewhere in the Bible Belt), just read this and the related articles.

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article11939504.html

Tom was 2 yrs ahead of me at Clayton High School, went to Yale & then Harvard Law.  He had been the state auditor for two terms and was deemed a rising star, and after announcing his intention to run for governor, he had a big early lead in the polls. But last Thursday, 7 minutes after placing calls requesting interviews with reporters from the AP & The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he killed himself.  Anti-Semitism seems to have been the main factor, even though Tom was only 1/4 Jewish, and a practicing Episcopalian.

I can think of no higher compliment to him than to say that my parents told me that he would have been the first Republican candidate for any office that they ever would have voted for in their lives.  I talked yesterday with my remaining best friend from HS, also a lawyer, and like Tom, still a resident of our home town.  He was devastated & perplexed, as is everyone who knew him.

One of my lasting memories of HS generally, much less of Tom in particular, is riding on the school bus from a cross country meet more than 45 minutes away on the day Lynyrd Skynryd's plane crashed.  I was 14 & he was 16 1/2, and we sat together talking about it.  We had each already bought "Street Survivors", which came out 3 days before the crash, and had a lengthy talk about mortality & having one's life cut short before your full potential.

The funeral was this morning at Tom's church which was walking distance from my old house in Clayton.  Long time MO senator John Danforth, also a former UN Ambassador, gave the eulogy, which is well worth reading.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/danforth-s-eulogy-for-tom-schweich-words-do-hurt-words/article_cf861616-67b6-5fa6-ae29-97ca3a243ec9.html

Just so sad.

[Tinka Cat]

If you want to know how fucked up Republican politics are in Missouri (and elsewhere in the Bible Belt), just read this and the related articles.

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article11939504.html

Tom was 2 yrs ahead of me at Clayton High School, went to Yale & then Harvard Law.  He had been the state auditor for two terms and was deemed a rising star, and after announcing his intention to run for governor, he had a big early lead in the polls. But last Thursday, 7 minutes after placing calls requesting interviews with reporters from the AP & The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he killed himself.  Anti-Semitism seems to have been the main factor, even though Tom was only 1/4 Jewish, and a practicing Episcopalian.

I can think of no higher compliment to him than to say that my parents told me that he would have been the first Republican candidate for any office that they ever would have voted for in their lives.  I talked yesterday with my remaining best friend from HS, also a lawyer, and like Tom, still a resident of our home town.  He was devastated & perplexed, as is everyone who knew him.

One of my lasting memories of HS generally, much less of Tom in particular, is riding on the school bus from a cross country meet more than 45 minutes away on the day Lynyrd Skynryd's plane crashed.  I was 14 & he was 16 1/2, and we sat together talking about it.  We had each already bought "Street Survivors", which came out 3 days before the crash, and had a lengthy talk about mortality & having one's life cut short before your full potential.

The funeral was this morning at Tom's church which was walking distance from my old house in Clayton.  Long time MO senator John Danforth, also a former UN Ambassador, gave the eulogy, which is well worth reading.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/danforth-s-eulogy-for-tom-schweich-words-do-hurt-words/article_cf861616-67b6-5fa6-ae29-97ca3a243ec9.html

Just so sad.

RIP to your friend.

That is completely f****d up. Those people are disgusting. I guess I don't fully understand how other parts of the country could still be so completely backwards when it comes to religious issues. Seems like his political enemies were trying anything to get at him.

[urth]

Condolences, Mark, to you for your friend, but also to the state of Missouri.

Not the first time a Missouri candidate for office has died under a pall prior to the election (see also: Mel Carnahan)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Carnahan

[mshray]

Condolences, Mark, to you for your friend, but also to the state of Missouri.

Not the first time a Missouri candidate for office has died under a pall prior to the election (see also: Mel Carnahan)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Carnahan

My parents were well acquainted with Mel Carnahan.

Not to be too proud, but when my parents (Gaz and a few others have met them once or twice back in the day), retired 8 years ago - and on the same day as planned long in advance - both the St. Louis City Assembly, (signed by the Mayor) & the Missouri Legislature (signed by the Governor) issued statements and presented plaques to my parents declaring that it was 'Ted & Linda Schroeder Day', based on their decades of public service to the least fortunate people in the state.  Pretty high bar.

To quote Steve Earle in an interview he once did on KFOG, "I am not a liberal.  I am a Radical.  I want to see radical change in this country."  I know my parents agree with that to this day, and after talking yesterday to a couple of my old friends who knew Tom, I suspect he would have agreed as well, Republican or not.

Still crushed at the loss, because I wish I could have possibly done 1/10th of what Tom did, and I wish Tom had the chance to do 10 times what he'd already done.

Not losing all hope, because you know what, I'll still keep trying.