We Will Miss Herb Hyde

Rob Christensen's tribute to mountain Democrat Herb Hyde in today's N&O is good reading. Herb departed this life on October 15th, a day after he was honored in absentia at the Vance-Aycock Dinner in Asheville.

Herb Hyde was one of the last of that generation of Democrats who knew the best way to defeat extreme legislation was to laugh out loud at it. He made a famous speech against a bill to outlaw cussing that is still fondly remembered by aging political operatives. He also "spoke out against a '60s law banning communists from speaking on state-supported campuses, for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and for education."

We were fortunate to know Herb Hyde and his brother Luke, who still owns and runs an historic hotel in Bryson City. Herb enlivened and enlightened every gathering fortunate enough to have him, and he could quote Shakespeare by the buckets. In honor of him, and of that ability to remember great words, we offer this:

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.