Walter Williams Rest In Peace, as posted by David Henderson in Econlib

https://www.econlib.org/walter-willia...


"Dominic Pino, a student at George Mason University, posted a very nice remembrance that really captures who Walter was. My favorite paragraph:

As Williams persisted well beyond retirement age, his passion for economics undimmed, he was the kind of man that made you say, “He’s going to teach until the day he dies.” On Dec. 1, he taught his last class of ECON 811 to complete the semester, ending the 7:20-10:00 p.m. block around 30 minutes early, as was typical. Fewer than 12 hours later, he died, aged 84. R.I.P.

Larry
Dec 2 2020 at 4:52pm
David, thank you for your wonderful tribute and memories of him. I only met Walter Williams, once — in either 1988 or 1989 in Brooklyn, NY, at a Free Press Conference. Both of us arrived early and were sitting in the hallway outside of the main meeting room. We spoke for about 15 or 20 minutes without interruption, and one of the funniest things he said to me — after I explained how my liberal friends spoke about black Americans and affirmative action — was this:
“Larry, the problem with those people is that their vision of a black person is somebody holding a mop — somebody who can’t do for himself. Somebody that needs them. The only thing that will fix them is having a black boss.”

David Henderson
Dec 2 2020 at 6:29pm
Interesting story.
I’m sure Walter didn’t intend the implication that there’s something wrong with spending your life mopping floors. At least I hope he didn’t.
That story tangentially reminds me of the famous Ayn Rand appearance at the University of Wisconsin in the early 1960s. At the end of her talk, a student asked her:
In your ideal society, who would take care of the janitors?
Rand answered:
Why, young man, the janitors."

Yesterday was a day of quiet, focused reflection.....and resolve. Part of this was spent in finding the above. At times, a poignant tear, for the loss of the man and the joy that his work is so well preserved. The "tangential" association of Williams and Rand deeply appreciated. Equality 7-2521 came to mind as I reflected on these lives, of others, and my own. A resolve reinforced to be an educator of equity until I pass as well.

I keep bits and pieces in a narrow file, perhaps a half inch thick, to remind of human endeavor, conflict resolution, learning and right relations. Williams, Sowell, Rand, Jefferson, Lao Tsu....Shupe...and Donway. And one day, perhaps, others may add my name to an honored list, in that, I added to the chorus, animating and not appropriating.

Tomorrow I challenge the enslavement of mask wearing, in a medical facility, armed with Statute of Law. The real challenge is in addressing the devastation of The Comprachicos. The next endeavor is to seek audience with The Black Student Union of Univ. of Wis., to entreat a different choice as to the separatism they've been steeped within.

".....so to clarify their thoughts and cleanse their needs that no cunning meddler could touch them" Bynner 1944, The Way Of Life

I might assume when you ask why? that it is rhetorical. But many actually do wonder why. As a private school educator (for the past three decades) I would testify that Ayn Rand has already answered it thoroughly and eloquently, hitting the nail on the head (no pun intended, okay maybe a little).

So I will simply quote:

Today’s comprachicos do not use narcotic powders. They take a child before he is fully aware of reality and never let him develop that awareness. Where nature put a normal brain, they put mental retardation. To make you unconscious for life by means of your own brain, nothing could be more ingenious. They are the comprachicos of the mind. They do not place a child into a vase to adjust his body to its contours. They place him into a school to adjust him to society.

The government schools have continued to ruin minds with impunity.
Horror vacui - Since nature abhors a vacuum, those weak, empty, broken minds will get filled with something. Until students can at least be taught to think and see behind the Argument from Intimidation, what their minds will be filled with is CRAP.

Walter E. Williams, A Defender of Individual Liberty
His website is a treasure chest of wisdom
http://walterewilliams.com/

One of my heroes is gone, only in mortal form.
I reached out to him when I heard of The State Dept's formation of a Commission on Unalienable Rights in July of 2019. I'd no response and not much time to follow up. Walter Williams would have been the sanest of those enjoined, in my opinion.