Knowing when it's time to quit (FR mentioned)

Some of my friends wonder aloud if I am suffering some sort of "midlife crisis." They cannot fathom, for the life of them, why I would retire, in my mid-40s, from my writing job at The San Diego Union-Tribune; why I would forfeit my nationally syndicated column.

Well, after nearly 15 years of daily deadlines, writing three to four editorials a week, in addition to a column, this seems as good a time as any to walk away from the grind.

As the latter-day philosopher Clint Eastwood famously stated: "A man's got to know his limitations."

I know there will be speculation in some quarters as to the "real" reason for my departure from daily journalism. Some will wonder whether I am the victim of some liberal coup at the Union-Tribune; whether I was "pushed out the door."

Let me assure everyone concerned that I am leaving of my own volition. I am looking forward to the next chapter in my life and career. And so is my lovely wife, Yolanda, who is taking early retirement.

I owe a debt of gratitude to my loyal readers, in San Diego and around the country, for supporting my writings over the years. And to the folks at FreeRepublic.com, Lucianne.com and RealClearPolitics.com – my three favorite Web sites – for occasionally posting my columns and giving my writings an even wider audience.

Your overwhelming feedback, measured in e-mails and voice mails, reassured me that my conservative thinking on the range of subjects was not nearly as far out as my preponderantly liberal journalistic peers often suggested.

Indeed, I considered it my mission to counterbalance the liberal orthodoxy that prevails on most of the nation's opinion pages. I viewed myself as a voice of the majority of Americans who are right of center on the political spectrum.

I'm referring to the folks who live in so-called red states – or in red counties, like San Diego, in otherwise blue states, like California – whose conservative values are viewed contemptuously by the liberal elite who dominate academia and Hollywood and the putative mainstream media.

I'm talking about the 60 million God-fearing, patriotic Americans who just returned George W. Bush to the White House.

Now some of my critics – yes, I've had a few – complained that I was too hard on liberals and Democrats; that I was always giving them hell.

That reminds me of the words of the late president Harry S Truman, one of my favorite Democrats. He didn't give his foes hell, he said. He just spoke the truth, and they thought it was hell.

And that's what I have done for much of the past 15 years. I have written the truth as it revealed itself. And many, if not most, of my liberal and Democrat readers thought it was hell.

Yet, while I have been a bare-knuckled opinion writer, while I have pulled none of my punches over the years, I have never borne malice toward anyone simply because we differed politically.

I might have disagreed, strenuously so, with someone's position on a given issue, or on many issues. But I never allowed that to cross the line into hate on my part.

I have tried to follow the example of Booker T. Washington, who was a black conservative long before being black and conservative was cool. "I will permit no man," he said, "to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."

Now I know that many of my conservative readers will be disappointed that I am getting out of the opinion-writing game. But I am not so full of myself as to believe that I am leaving behind a void that somehow can't be filled.

Indeed, back in my White House days, I had an actress friend who was appearing in a production of "Twelfth Night" at Washington's Folger Shakespeare Theater.

One day, the lead actress in the play, Hollywood A-lister Kelly McGillis (whose screen credits included at the time "Top Gun," "Witness" and "The Accused"), fell ill.

I wondered whether the evening's performance would go on. To which my actress friend replied: "One monkey don't stop no show."

Well, I'm just a simian who writes conservative opinions. And there are plenty of other simians who share my political predilection who can ably take my place.

And if, for some reason, the 200 or so newspapers that have carried my column – including San Diego's leading daily – do not see fit to run another conservative column in place of mine, conservative readers need not despair.

Because they can always turn to the blogosphere. It is the brave new marketplace of ideas, rivaling the influence of newspaper editorial pages.

Who knows? I may come out of retirement in six months or a year or three years and start my own blog, proffering opinions on issues of the day. It would be just like old times.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perkins can be reached via e-mail at JosephPerkinsInc@aol.com.

I like that expression -- "voices of reason." One seldom hears that anymore -- but when one does, it's an oasis in one's day, "a voice calling out in the wilderness," as I suppose it's always been that way. I guess the other would be the voices of control, hysteria and demagoguery -- that dominate the mainstream media, institutions and other forums now.

I'm not familiar with this writer by name but I'm familiar with his thoughts, and that's what matters. Fifteen years is a long time to do anything -- and then to have the courage to move on to the next level, which even he doesn't know what that is yet, distinguishes his achievement. He creates the space and silence for that possibility -- and that is not possible in the hurried existence of relentless deadlines, which requires a continuation of the past. If this person is just in his mid-40s, he has the greatest part of his life ahead of him. He's doing all the right things. He is the prototype for a new kind of midlife crisis -- one signaling a new period of growth rather than the old one marking the beginning of irreversible, irrevocable lifelong deterioration.

A great problem in this, and immeasurably worse in other societies, is this lack of turnover -- which allows for the infusion of new blood and ideas into any organization and organism. Instead, too many organizations are waiting around for one generation to die so they can inch up. Living at that speed is not very inspiring or dynamic; in fact, it kills the soul and spirit.

So people who can recognize that it is time to move on, create possibilities for others -- and that is also part of one's job. Voices of reason have become very rare in the mainstream media, academia, and the usual suspects one hopes to find them. But that suppression and extinction in one place has to burst out in another -- giving rise to the electronic forums/blogs of these times. They are obviously the superior medium; the question of the past decade has been, can we produce the content to match that technological advance over the old reproduction and distribution process? This is what this writer recognizes and undoubtedly is retiring to play a bigger part of. It is the inescapable future -- for everyone.

He is only retiring to the past -- making it possible for him to be reborn anew into the future. One inevitably has to die to be reborn into the new life; that's been known for at least what -- two thousand years? So this guy, we don't have to worry about; he's chosen wisely and well -- and reached the other side, made the leap of faith, as a testimony to his faith. The ones we will continue to see hanging on ingloriously and ungraciously are the aging "superstars" of another era, reminiscent of that classic movie of countless faded stars of a previous generation living now only in their memories, and wondering why everyone around them is no longer enchanted. They just wish they'd hurry up and go -- without their farewell tributes to themselves.

From the article:
Now some of my critics – yes, I've had a few – complained that I was too hard on liberals and Democrats; that I was always giving them hell.
That reminds me of the words of the late president Harry S Truman, one of my favorite Democrats. He didn't give his foes hell, he said. He just spoke the truth, and they thought it was hell.
And that's what I have done for much of the past 15 years. I have written the truth as it revealed itself. And many, if not most, of my liberal and Democrat readers thought it was hell.

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