Thanks Art...

I thought I’d take a stab at writing about somebody before they died.
The first newspaper columnist I remember reading on a regular basis was Art Buchwald. Art’s columns have been syndicated around the world for at least half a century.
I remember as a 10 year old child having my mother hand me the opinion section of the Pittsburgh Press to read a column skewering then Vice President Richard Nixon for some DC faux pas that was the news of the day. If you chose politics as a profession in this great country you were fair game for the wit and satirical sabre of the raspy throated Buchwald who dished it out without favor to Democrats and Republicans alike.
Art recently made a decision to allow himself to die with dignity. He doesn’t appear ill, but he has decided to forego thrice weekly dialysis treatments that would prolong his life. He stopped taking the treatments about 5 weeks ago and is currently living in a Washington DC area hospice. He is 80 years old.
In 1982 Art Buchwald won the Pulitzer Prize for Outstanding Commentary.
In 1989 he successfully sued Paramont Pictures whom he maintained stole his script idea for the movie “Coming to America” with Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. The lawsuit set the precedent that a Motion Picture Company couldn’t hide behind the industry’s widely prevalent “no profit bookkeeping” to evade damages in a civil action.
Throughout his life Art has been compared to the famous satirist Jonathon Swift. Unlike others who plied the trade Buchwald has never been mean spirited in his writings.
Now he faces death with the same grace he has lived his life.