Remembering Jack Kemp

An excellent first-person remembrance of the late Jack Kemp by Shaun D. Small of Phoenixville, published today in The Pottstown Mercury. Small worked for Jack Kemp from 2001-2005 and served as an economic adviser and director of policy while Mr. Kemp was co-director at Empower America.

Here's a sampling of the op-ed column:

Not all good ideas become law, some need time a marinate until their time comes due, and others do not survive the scrutiny of further examination. But it's the desire and willingness to engage in the battle of ideas that separates our republic from the empires of old and autocrats of our age. No one in my lifetime engaged in that battle as enthusiastically and effectively as Jack Kemp.

I don't know if Jack realized how many lives he has touched or the number of people he has inspired, but every time I look at the football Jack signed for my 2-year-old son I am reminded that the torch of freedom will soon pass to yet another generation of "Team Kemp."

Read the full column, "Jack Kemp touched many lives," at the newspaper's Web site.