Tom Lantos

Tom Lantos died today, a tireless advocate of human rights both here and abroad, a man who had lived through some of the most evil times the twentieth century witnessed and came out a soldier of good. A Hungarian Jew who escaped Nazi prison camps twice, he served as a Democratic member of Congress from 1980 until his recent retirement, when he announced he would not run again due to cancer of the esophagus. Lantos fought for environmental issues, health care reform, intervention against genocide in Sudan, remembrance of the Armenian genocide, and equitable tax laws. He also was a strong backer of both Gulf wars. I think his life shows how men can be led astray in their quest to "heal the world". Not all occasions to pick up the sword are the right ones; I think his life and his survivor's tale certainly framed his approach to global affairs. One can hardly expect a man who survived the Holocaust not to be a strong advocate of Israel and military opposition to tyranny anywhere, yet as the Iraqi fiasco has shown, noble men such as Lantos can't always be right. I think what's more important is to remember a man who lived a hero's life, a victim's life as well. He was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in the United States congress, and as we lose him we lose a link to the past, a past not too distant. The cause of stopping genocide has to be world cause, and Lantos always appreciated the gravity of this.