Memory Book for Jack Kemp
Share your memories and donate in the name of Jack Kemp
I will never forget sitting on campaign busses, traveling to every Notch from Dixville to Zealand and relaying between the state’s North White Mountains and Great North Woods to its southern sections of Portsmouth and Seabrook in the Seacoast region and Nashua, Concord and Manchester in between.
I coordinated the door-to-door effort in certain assigned locations and coordinated the smaller events and stops that we made. I was often honored beyond belief whenever I had to sit with Kemp on the campaign bus and have the opportunity to brief the would-be-President on events at our next stops and update him on how the door-to-door events at previous stops went.
It was on one such occasion, when after enduring an hour and a half of a door-to-door tour, with the Congressman, in Manchester, I collected the walking sheets of all the addresses and families visited, made sure all the volunteers boarded the bus and proceeded to settle down on the bus to go over the next event with Congressman Kemp. As I approached my seat next to him, I started rattling off the names of the local officials who would be in attendance at the next stop we were approaching.
The Congressman stopped me in mid sentence and asked,…………. “Anthony, are you cold or nervous”?
Now, primary season in New Hampshire is quite a chilly experience and I was cold, but I was also new to this and always a bit nervous in the presence of the man who had become my political hero.
So, stunned by the question, I thought for a moment and realized that the question could have been prompted by my slight shiver from the wintery winds and temperatures I had just experienced or it could have been brought about by the stammering that my nervousness triggered whenever I had to address the candidate.
So after a moment of reflection, I replied……….. “to be honest Congressman, it’s a little bit of both”.
Looking me in the eye, he casually nodded his head while saying to me………… “well let me give you a bit of advice. You might feel warmer if you zipped up your fly. And as for being nervous, just remember, I put my pants on one leg at a time like everyone else. I just happen to pull up my zipper too though”.
Embarrassed beyond belief, I dropped my clip board and all the paperwork I was carrying, turned around, zipped up, and apologized profusely. The Congressman, laughed it off and from that point on I believe he did more to make me feel at ease, than I did to help his campaign.
Online, my user I.D. is Kempite. It is a moniker I use in pride. Jack Kemp ushered me into the conservative cause. Jack Kemp sold Reaganomics to Reagan, believed in a right to life and challenged those within his own party to think big and outside of the box.
He was one of those rare figures in politics who was more than just a partisan politician. He did not tow the party line, he drew the line that was the party.
It is for all these reasons, and more that this movement conservative calls myself Kempite and describes myself as a "bleeding heart, Jack Kemp, conservative..
It is also why, today, my heart bleeds for the loss of Jack French Kemp.
There may not be a state funeral for this man, or national monuments built in his honor and our nation’s leaders may not even ask for flags to be flown at half-mast in tribute. He may not have been a President or a household name but his life has affected all of us in a profound and positive way.
Jack Kemp
Former quarterback and VP nominee, dies at 73
The Grief Recovery ® Guidance Center
John
Russell
