Tony Snow, Writing, Libertarianism and Me

I talked with the editor, Jim Lee, about the latest developments in Landmark's divestiture initiative and how that may affect the "Carroll County Times."

I enjoyed my visit and as I was leaving I remembered that I forgot to say Happy Birthday "Carroll County Times"... The local Carroll County Maryland newspaper recently celebrated its 97^th birthday.

An edition of the "Carroll County Times" first rolled off the press on October 6, 1911, according to a history of the newspaper published by the Carroll County Times. It was printed by the Mather Printing company of Westminster and published by George K Mather, whose father had operated a dry goods, mercantile, and clothing retailer for many years in Westminster.

Later "The Times" was subsequently sold and over the years was resold on several occasions until the late 1960s, when Adam Speigel, of the Speigel catalog family purchased the newspaper, while he was still in his 20s.

Mr. Speigel sold the Carroll County Times to Landmark Community Newspapers in 1974.

This all comes to mind because earlier this year when Tony Snow passed away from cancer on July 12, 2008; I was poignantly reminded of when I first came across Landmark Newspapers.

As I noted in several tributes I wrote about Tony Snow after his death; although I certainly never knew Mr. Snow, I vicariously followed his - too short - career for several years before he burst upon the national stage. His death was if a friend had passed away.

I greatly admired Tony Snow. His animated, vibrant, and expansive energy was infectious and shown through whether you were watching him on TV, listening to him on the radio, reading his editorials or watching him play in his rock band, "Beats Workin."

One of the many attributes of Mr. Snow is a personal approach I have always tried to emulate. Whether you agreed with him or disagreed with him; whatever his point of view, he never seemed to alienate or annoy.

He brought life to his job as the White House press secretary from May 2006 until September 2007.

I have followed his career for many years and I am amused when the media felt the need to label him as a "conservative." He was a libertarian. There is a difference.

I have always considered myself much more a libertarian than a conservative and I am often amused when folks attempt to pigeonhole me into some sort of neat stereotype.

In a conversation earlier today with a colleague, she said that she really doesn't understand what a libertarian is.

If I had been quick-witted enough I should have explained that as a libertarian I annoy both the Democratic and Republican Parties.

The difference between the two philosophies is profound; as exemplified by Ayn Rand's philosophical version of libertarianism called "Objectivism," portrayed in her 1943 classic, "The Fountainhead" and later "Atlas Shrugged," published in 1957.

Robert Nozick later expanded upon the philosophy in his 1974 work, "Anarchy, State, and Utopia." Essentially and simplistically; libertarians bristle at the intrusion of the state upon individual liberties and believe that individual persons are sovereign over their life, liberty, destiny, fate, and property.

In a tribute to Mr. Snow published by Davidson College, his political philosophy professor, Lance Stell recalled an organized debate he once had with Mr. Snow in which professor Stell was assigned "to argue against the viability of libertarianism, and (Mr. Snow) argued for it."

Mr. Snow earned a B.A. in philosophy from Davidson College in 1977. Davidson is located in a small town, by the same name, just above Charlotte, North Carolina and just down the road from where I went to school at Elon College from 1971-1973.

As an aspiring writer and an artist, who stumbled around for several years after I left Elon College, I could easily relate to what Mr. Snow may have gone through after he graduated from Davidson and "shuffled from job to job."

According to Peter Baker, writing for the Washington Post; Mr. Snow "shuffled from job to job, first as a caseworker for the mentally ill in North Carolina, then as a teacher in Cincinnati and Kenya before doing graduate work in economics and philosophy at the University of Chicago."

Several years later he went to work in 1979 for "The Greensboro Record" as an editorialist. That paper, now "The Greensboro News and Record," is owned by Landmark Communications.

I interviewed with the "Daily Record" in the spring of 1973. I had just dropped out of Elon College because, in my youthful naïveté, I had decided "to become a full-time writer." It's a long story, for another time. I didn't get the job...

In 1973, the "Daily Record" was owned by Landmark Communications. Norfolk-Portsmouth Newspapers had purchased the paper in 1965. In 1967 Norfolk-Portsmouth Newspapers became Landmark Communications.

The paper is now known as "The Greensboro News and Record," after the Greensboro Daily Record combined with the "Greensboro Daily News" in 1984. As an aside, I first discovered newspapers on the internet in 1995, by accessing the on-line version of Greensboro paper called "Triad Online."

Meanwhile, in Westminster, Landmark Community Newspapers purchased the Carroll County Times in 1974. I tried again to get a job with Landmark, at the "Carroll County Times," in 1975 and failed again.

Being a newspaper geek, over the years I have followed "The Greensboro News and Record," and two other Landmark papers, "The Virginian-Pilot" in Norfolk and the "Roanoke Times," ever since and it is that capacity that I came across Tony Snow.

I have, over the years, often wondered how different my life would be if I had landed a job with the "Greensboro Record" in 1973 and gotten to know Mr. Snow after he arrived at the newspaper in 1979.

After all, Mr. Snow gave all of us great insight as how to live - and how to die. And, as a result our lives have much more meaning.