Tribute to Michael Harrington

Michael Harrington had two qualities of the greatly good—patience, and an almost total freedom from vanity. A political worker by calling, he was also, irrepressibly, a quick-witted man, who could startle himself (in the middle of some careful analysis of historical trends) with a sly joke or a glancing allusion. He must often have been bored, or tired; yet one cannot imagine him looking bored, and the tiredness rarely showed in public. To have confessed to feelings of discouragement must have seemed to him a sin against hope. Was there ever anyone who wasted less time? “A sense of humor saves a few steps, it saves years”, and Michael had a sense of humor—with a long or short fuse, as needed. Once, after a lecture, I hear...