By Tom Sgouros in
RIFuture.org
I gather that Mike
Riley’s campaign [for Congress, District 2, versus Rep. Jim Langevin] has decided it won’t comment to RIFuture.
I find this shocking. Back when I had a column that appeared in the
Narragansett Times, Mike Riley was one of my regular correspondents.
As
I’m sure you can imagine, much of the mail I received about my column was
thoughtful material, the kind of missives that make a writer stop and
reconsider his positions due to the unexpected viewpoints and hitherto unknown
data points contained in them. Mike’s were no exception.
Herewith a sample of his fan mail:
 |
| Michael Riley: just the kind of guy to bring reason and civility to Congress |
Dr Mr Sgouros,
Your recent communist diatribe in the “communist times” revealed a giant gap in your knowledge of pensions and education. You couldn’t be more wrong or more communist. People like you need to be educated in some other country. Preferably Venezuela.
Michael G Riley
Your recent communist diatribe in the “communist times” revealed a giant gap in your knowledge of pensions and education. You couldn’t be more wrong or more communist. People like you need to be educated in some other country. Preferably Venezuela.
Michael G Riley
Dear Tom Sgouros,
I dont understand why the Narragansett Times prints any of your lunatic ravings.For a look at what a true intellectual might say and a capitalist newspaper might print ,I have attached a recent note from Brian Bishop.
Michael G Riley
Narragansett
I dont understand why the Narragansett Times prints any of your lunatic ravings.For a look at what a true intellectual might say and a capitalist newspaper might print ,I have attached a recent note from Brian Bishop.
Michael G Riley
Narragansett
Morning Hugo, that article on banks
and hedge funds was truly pathetic
That last one is the entire note,
except it also had a stirring quote from Friedrich von Hayek indicating that
true freedom includes the freedom to make mistakes, even to starve.
Needless to say, his prose style and
trenchant observations made him one of my treasured regular correspondents.
His notes to me always arrived addressed to “communist” so I’d know who
it was from. When he announced his run for office, he sent out an invite
to join his network on LinkedIn:
A second, similar, note with a
somewhat more traditional salutation arrived shortly after.
One time in 2009, I found myself at
an event at a bar in Narragansett that turned out to be in the same plaza as
Riley’s office. I happened to speak there with an acquaintance of his,
who offered to go tell him I was in the area, and did. Sadly, Mike was
apparently too busy to come meet me, so I still have never met him in person.
So that’s Mike Riley for you:
tolerant of opposing viewpoints, humble about his own, committed to reasoned
discussion as the route to moving our polity forward. I couldn’t be more
sincere about my support for him.
Tom Sgouros
is a freelance engineer, policy
analyst, and writer. Reach him atripr@whatcheer.net. Buy his book,
"Ten Things You Don't Know About Rhode Island" at whatcheer.net
