Paul Harvey: 1918 - 2009

Paul Harvey has died and I’m going to miss him.

I’ve been listening to “Paul Harvey News and Comment” since the 1970s. He was pushing sixty at that time, but his message spoke spoke to me as a youth. Harvey loved his country, was optimistic about the future and advocated a can-do spirit. Coming from anyone else, his act would have seemed corny. But Paul Harvey was sincere. You could tell he truly believed what he was saying.

And that meant a lot in that time. The 1970s were a period of great unrest, economic upheaval and uncertainty. Paul Harvey was my link to a more stable, more reasonable past. He was confident that things would be better. I am certain that Paul Harvey and Jimmy Carter are the twin reasons I grew to become a conservative.

In all honesty, I think Paul Harvey’s show suffered in recent years. He had taken an interest in what I would call “junk science,” and and perhaps moved a bit away from his more conservative roots. But he was still sincere and I looked forward to that daily “Good Morning, Americans. This is Paul Harvey”

Paul Harvey has had a lot of substitutes over the last few years—including Michigan’s own Paul W. Smith—but none will be able to replace him. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve lost a national treasure.