Sad Loss Today

Several years ago, before the Pandemic, I received a friendly call from a law firm I’d done some business with – and they asked if I’d be willing to help a high-profile individual better understand how the Internet worked.

This individual was going to be doing some consulting in telecommunications, and he felt that some remedial education on Internet protocols, security issues, emerging services, and the like would be a good idea.

I joked that perhaps someone needed to explain all this to me, but I did agree to help out. And when I found out this high-profile individual was Senator Joe Lieberman, I was naturally delighted. And thus began a casual friendship that I enjoyed.

I would visit with him at the offices of the law firm where he worked in New York City, and I'd go up to the white board, where I'd try to explain TCP/IP. He seemed interested enough, but we always seemed to veer off onto some other less technical topic.

I remember mentioning something about my Mom, and Senator Joe really wanted to hear more. He loved people and he loved their stories. I suspect I wasn't much help to him on how the Internet worked, but I sure did enjoy those sessions.

As you might know, the Senator passed away today from complications due to a fall. This is obviously a tragedy for his family, but it is also a sad day for our country. Senator Joe was one of the last of a dying breed – a politician who cared more about others than about himself.

My last interaction with this fine Senator came just a couple months ago when I asked him to come to NYU to speak with our students. He politely declined saying that he wasn’t keeping up as much with the kind of topics he expected to be asked (aka China).

My last words to him were that perhaps he might come visit next semester. And I sure do wish I’d been more insistent. My students would have learned more from him telling stories about people, than they would have learned from ten other politicians lecturing about policy for a week.

God speed to a nice man.