Nat Hentoff

You know the day is inevitable. Since it's been three months since he last published his column, I suspected the end was nearer than when he first enlisted one of his son's help in writing that column. Still, my heart sank when I read news of his death on Saturday.

I started my newspaper reading on the funny pages. Eventually, I noticed there was always a cartoon on the editorial page. Herblock introduced me to politics, and the Washington Post columnists continued my education. Back then, Nat Hentoff's "Sweet Land of Liberty" was a regular feature, and from him I learned how to read the Constitution as a strict constructionist. More importantly, I learned from him how to adhere to one's principles.

Although an atheist, Hentoff had a religion: America. He loved our country, and he loved it because of the principles on which it was founded. Amongst those principles is the unalienable right to life, and so he opposed abortion, despite the chagrin of many of his so-called-liberal colleagues.

Nat Hentoff was one of the very few people whose disagreement made me question my own beliefs. Generally, a person states his or her disagreement and one nods politely before moving on with one's life. Especially when it came to the Constitution, I knew I had to have very good reasons to disagree with him: following Hentoff's lead, I realized that my strict constructionist read of the First Amendment required an equally strict constructionist read of the Second Amendment, no matter how skeptical I continue to be regarding the putative virtues of a heavily armed populace.

For those of us for whom worship of these United States poses a serious temptation to violate the First and Second Commandments, Nat Hentoff was a chief apostle and unwavering conscience.

And he produced albums for Charles Mingus. How cool is that?