Will Rogers was a Great Guy
by Shane Timson
For High Plains Public Radio Readers Book Club, I’m Shane Timson in Colby, Kansas.
Today, I am discussing the book I Never Met a Man I Didn’t Like, the Life and Writings of Will Rogers. Now before reading this book, I didn’t know anything about Will Rogers except for that quote, “I never a man I didn’t like,” so I was very curious to read this book and to see how he came up with that conclusion. Well, it’s not hard to see. Though he only lived to be around 50 years old, he did more in a short life than many people have done in a long life.
Will Rogers is the kind of guy who just took life and enjoyed it, travelling the world several times meeting everything from the ordinary everyday man to politicians. And of politicians, he said, I’ve met everybody in Congress and I liked them all. Now, even if you could meet everybody in Congress today, you probably wouldn’t like them all.
You would probably gravitate to the Congressmen and -women who are in your party. You wouldn’t want to spend time with the other side most likely. See, I believe what makes Will Rogers special is that he could see the whole person. He could make fun of all the politicians but could still go out to dinner with them. He didn’t make fun of people to be malicious, which is what a lot of people do today. If you look at political cartoons, it’s usually one side trying to take the other side down as opposed to just having good, clean fun.
Well, Will Rogers was not associated with any political party. I don’t know if they call them “Independents” like they do now, but I believe because he wasn’t associated with either party, he could freely talk to anybody and he got along with everybody quite well.
That’s because, I believe, that Will Rogers could see the whole person. We tend to judge people on political affiliation and religious affiliation and if we agree on those things, we’re good. If we don’t agree on those things, we’re not good whereas Will Rogers could talk to anybody about anything.
I believe that if Will Rogers disagreed with you, it would be okay. It wasn’t the heated anger we see in today’s society.
One of the writings I thought was cool was his writing on chewing gum. He talked about how much he chewed gum. He said it’s a shame that it gets it gets wasted. He wanted to come up with ways you could use the already chewed gum. He went on about that and I really enjoyed it. It was funny.
One of his political things that he talked about that I thought was interesting was that he talked about how you’ve got two years to get stuff done and then you have to campaign to make sure you got your second term. What he suggested is that Congressmen have six-year terms. No campaigning. You just get in there. Get to work and do the job that you’re supposed to do.
I kind of agree with that. It doesn’t have to be six years. It could be four years, but I kind of like the idea that you get in there, do what you can in that term and when you’re done, the next person gets a chance to do what they can.
Yes, Will Rogers was a great guy. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It showed me that there are good people in this world who mean well and want to do well.
For High Plains Public Radio Readers Book Club, I’m Shane Timson in Colby, Kansas.
