He's been a lurker, if not a registered poster for many years.
It was probably 4 or 5 years ago that he e-mailed me thanking me for posting his editorials.
He will be missed in the UT, since Helen Copley as editor of the paper retired he has been one of the sole voices of reason in the paper.
Dale thanks for posting this.
We can hope that after a few weeks, Mr Perkins becomes a freeper and does opeds for Free Republic for fun and the truth about liberals.
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.