Frank Lautenberg - Champion of the People

I join the myriad admirers of the late longtime New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, a fighter and crusader for what he felt was right, and how right he was on key issues of public safety and health.  
This brilliant, passionate, and articulate self-made multi-millionaire and statesman brought his talent to the people, and we were the better for it.  

Senator Lautenberg took on the tobacco pushers/conglomerates, knowing the harm that this legal and lethal product inflicts on society as a former two pack a day addict himself.  I shall be forever grateful to him as the father of the smoking ban on commercial airliners, which led to acceptance of similar prohibitions in public facilities.  Can anyone imagine returning to the days in which airline passengers could smoke as they sit in their tiny seats three abreast…individuals smoking as they walk through a department store…smokers at their workplace cubicles?  

Frank Lautenberg refused to be intimidated or bought by the gun manufacturers’ lobby, The National Rifle Association.  His passion for common sense measures to keep lethal weapons out of the hands of the homicidal and the deranged was evident when he courageously returned to the Senate in a wheelchair in April of this year to vote for universal background checks and a reinstatement of the ban on assault-style weapons.  

When Senator Lautenberg got on the ballot after his disgraced former colleague Robert Torricelli was forced off the political stage under an ethical cloud, I believed he would be a short-term placeholder who returned to the Senate simply to keep the seat in Democratic hands.  This, though, was no placeholder.  He was in it for the long haul and he certainly could have won re-election next year had he lived and wished to continue serving.  

As a strong fiscal conservative, I was not in Frank Lautenberg’s camp on a number of key issues, but I have the greatest admiration and respect for him and was gratified that we shared some views on issues that affect the everyday lives of all.

Rest in peace, dear Senator Lautenberg.  You made your mark within a long life well-lived.  You and your multiple accomplishments shall not be forgotten.