Goodbye to Nat Hentoff

[Michaels153]

That is the title of the NewYork Times news article that informed the reader among other things that Nat Hentoff had died.
I thought back to the first article that i read from him. The subject was education. This was the first article that i responded to by writing back to this man. I had questions. And Mr. Hentoff took the time to write back to me. Mr Hentoff answered the questions i asked of him. He also took the time to explain the things i commented on and was curious about. From that first letter came two or three more. Each of my letters were responded to by this man in the same way. Each of my letters to him were about education. Mr. Hentoff seemed to understand that this was important to me and he wanted to help me as best as he could.
I have never met Mr. Hentoff. I wished that i had. I never thought about his political leanings. To me he was just someone you could talk to. He was someone who seemed to understand things and who would explain them to you if you really wanted to know. He reminded me of a writer from Chicago, Mike Royko who i also enjoyed reading and never met. I will miss Mr. Hentoff.

[leftyg]

I am sorry to hear about that. I did a paper on Jazz when I was a junior in high school and Nat Hentoff as you know was a leading jazz critic and historian. He was also a devoted free speech advocate, and I did a paper on that in college. He was a contrarian and an intellectual. I am sad to hear he is gone, but he lived a magnificent life.