Ed Koch: A Great Man

Ed Koch, former three-term Mayor of New York City, passed away early this morning from congestive heart disease, he was eighty-eight years old.

Koch, a giant within the City Democrat Party, will find well wishes and condolences by members belonging to both parties, as his fellow Democrats loved his outspoken liberalism and Republicans respected his principled nature, especially in his later years when he would often place his political allegiance on the side for what he thought was best.

From being drafted as a young Jewish man into the Army, where he served as an Infantryman in the European theatre in World War 2, to fighting the corrupt system in Tammany Hall to serving his City in the House of Representatives to eventually reaching the apex as Mayor, his life was a constant testimony to public service and patriotism.

The world lost not only an outspoken man, who would confront anyone, any party and basically any issue on his principles and stubborn City attitude, but a man we could count on clarity in this confusing world of ours - as he liked to refer to himself, a liberal with sanity.

And as I like to remember him as: a great man.